


What I (don't) like about you

by truly_madly_deeply



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band), One Direction (Band)
Genre: 1D are minor in this but I still love them, Alternate Universe - High School, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Hand Jobs, Hate to Love, Jealousy, Love/Hate, M/M, Making Out, Public Blow Jobs, Public Hand Jobs, Rimming, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-15
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-03-07 14:39:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 70,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3176298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truly_madly_deeply/pseuds/truly_madly_deeply
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael hates Luke, Luke hates Michael. When Luke’s older brother Ashton starts dating Michael’s best friend Calum out of all people, the two arch enemies are suddenly forced to spend way too much time together. Which they don’t like at all, but hey, shit happens, and so does love.</p><p>  <em>Or the one where Luke gets his lip pierced and Michael finds it very distracting.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on this fic for almost three months now and it's still not finished, but I decided to start uploading it anyway. It's the first multi chaptered story I've ever written in English, and since English isn't my first language it's probably not perfect, but I'm trying my best. ;)
> 
> I dedicate this whole mess to [this](http://keepcalmbecause5sos-is-awesome.tumblr.com/) lovely friend of mine, because let's be honest here, it's entirely her fault that I became so obsessed with Muke and the whole “He wanted to kill me, I wanted to kill him” thing - she knows me so well, I'm a sucker for hate/love. *sigh* So, thanks my dear, this is for you. xx
> 
> Oh, and by the way: Luke, Mikey and Cal are sixteen here and Ash is two years older, but I pictured them more like they look now. For example, Mikey's hair is red and Luke is already quite tall in this story. He doesn't have his lip ring yet, though.^^
> 
> (You can find me on [tumblr](http://throwinrocksatmukeswindow.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/Leo_111188).)

**1.**

Luke was excited.

Despite his good looks – which his older brother Ashton loved teasing him about playfully – he was being really shy most of the time, especially when it came to talking to girls. So of course it was a big deal for him when in Year 10, he finally managed to walk up to his crush, a pretty blonde girl with blue eyes and a beautiful smile, and actually ask her out.

The good news was that it didn’t even take her a second to say yes, and Luke practically beamed at her after that. The bad news, however, was already waiting for him around the next corner with an almost malicious smirk.

“Well, well … Seems like you finally found someone who likes you, Hemmings.”

Luke tried his best to ignore his arch enemy, who was casually leaning against a locker with his hands buried in his pockets. He’d just gotten himself a date, after all, and he wasn’t willing to let this stupid prick ruin his happy moment.

“See, Cal? I told you she’d leave him speechless. He probably won’t be able to talk at all during that glorious date. Oh, that’s going to be so much fun …”

“Fuck off, Clifford.” Great, so much for ignoring him. Luke just couldn’t help it, the words always slipped from his tongue so easily when that dumbass decided to annoy the shit out of him once again.

Which happened a lot, unfortunately. It seemed to be Clifford’s greatest pleasure, had been for many years now, and Luke still didn’t have a clue why that idiot hated him so much – he’d never done anything to deserve this! However, Luke didn’t question it anymore. It was so much easier to just hate him back.

“Oi! Language, Hemmings. It’s not very nice of you to tell people to fuck off.”

Luke wanted to punch him straight in the face. “I’m not telling _people_ to fuck off, I’m telling _you_.”

The dark-haired boy next to Clifford audibly cleared his throat. “C’mon Mikey, let’s go.” He grabbed his friend’s arm to drag him away, but Clifford didn’t even think of following him.

Instead, he crossed his arms and looked Luke up and down with a taunting smile, and it made the younger boy want to punch him even more. “What?” he snapped at him so loudly that a few other students stopped in the middle of the hallway to look at them.

“Nothing,” Clifford said after a couple of seconds. His lips were twitching and it made Luke absolutely _furious_.

“Then stay away from me! Leave me alone, for fuck’s sake, it can’t be that hard!”

Hood cleared his throat again but kept being ignored, and Clifford raised his pierced eyebrow. “Well, Hemmings, maybe I just enjoy seeing you getting so mad. It’s hilarious, really. Like an angry puppy … I mean, well, you know. Like a really _ugly_ angry puppy. So. Yeah.” He turned towards his best friend, who’d made a choking noise, and glared at him, and now Hood just couldn’t seem to stop laughing.

Suddenly Luke wanted to punch him, too.

“Calum!” Clifford growled and it definitely sounded like a threat.

It didn’t work though, Hood just kept laughing and then disappeared down the hallway while shouting, “Alright, this is getting ridiculous. I’ll just leave the two of you alone so you can work this puppy thing out.”

“I hate you!” Clifford yelled after him and threw one last glance at Luke before running off.

Luke was still furious when he arrived at home two hours later and was called to dinner, and he instantly started complaining about Michael fucking Clifford and his stupid behaviour. “He’s so annoying!” he grumbled and nearly knocked his plate over while gesturing wildly.

“We know,” his mum sighed. “We’ve heard it from you a million times. - Ash, honey, please hand me the vegetables.”

“Muuuum,” Luke whined and actually started pouting.

Now even his father sighed. “Luke. Please, let us have at least one peaceful family dinner without mentioning how much you’d pay a serial killer to make that boy disappear forever.”

“It’s not funny!” Luke protested, completely ignoring the fact that he’d actually shared thoughts like this with his family in the past. “He won’t stop making fun of me in front of the whole school! He even tried to make me look stupid for getting a date with Lynn and –“

“What,” his dad said.

“WHAT,” his mum and his brother squealed in synch, dropping their forks and gaping at him wide-eyed.

Luke shut his mouth. Damn it.

A second later he was being buried in his brother’s arms. “You have a date with Lynn? You finally asked her out? Hell yeah, I knew you could do it! I’m so proud of you, Lukey, you –“

“Don’t call me that,” Luke murmured while trying to hide his burning cheeks.

His mum looked like she was about to pull him into her arms and squeeze him to death. “When are you seeing her? Oh my god, that’s so exciting! We need to get you something nice to wear, maybe Ash can help you with that, and how about, well, getting a new haircut?”

“MUM!” Luke groaned with a pained expression on his face. “Stop doing that, I’m begging you.”

“Yes, please, let me eat in peace,” his dad agreed.

“I’m sorry, you’re right. I’m just so happy for you, Luke! You have to tell me everything about that girl, what does she look like? How old is she? Do I know her mother?”

“I’m not going to answer any of that!”

“Yeah, he’s right,” Ashton grinned. “He’s old enough to handle it on his own.”

“But –“

“No, Mum, I’m serious, it’s none of your business,” Ashton said and Luke nodded vigorously. “Besides, I’m sure he’ll bring her home eventually so we can meet her. Right, Luke?”

“Yeah, sure,” Luke mumbled and bit his lips. He wasn’t so sure at all, though. What if the date went horribly wrong? What if he made a fool out of himself? What if Lynn decided he wasn’t worth the time and she didn’t like him anyway? What …

“Hey Lynn. You look absolutely stunning today, as always.”

… if she liked Clifford better than him?!?

It was the day he’d been waiting for the whole week, the day he’d finally have his very first date, and although he’d been terribly nervous over the past few days, he was still excited for it to happen. And now, while he was walking down the almost empty hallway, he heard that familiar voice and turned around, only to see Clifford standing there and talking to the girl _he_ had asked out.

“Oh, thanks Michael. You look very nice, too. I really like your new hair colour.”

“You do? That’s awesome! Hey, I was wondering if you’d like to go on a date with me? Maybe today after school?”

At this point, Luke was already boiling with anger. He was _this_ close to running towards Clifford, shoving him up against a locker and breaking his fucking neck. God, he hated him, he really did. He hated him so much that he wanted to see him _suffer_. A lot.

Luckily, Lynn saved him from having to go to jail for murdering his classmate. “Um, sorry Michael,” she said, “thanks for asking, I guess, but I’m already going with Luke.”

Luke wished he could kiss her right then and there, in the middle of the hallway. He’d never actually do something crazy like that, though. Damn his stupid shyness!

“Oh, okay.”

“I’m sorry, Michael.”

“No, it’s alright, don’t worry.” Clifford smiled at the girl, who was now awkwardly shifting from one foot to the other, and Luke gritted his teeth together. Then Clifford suddenly turned around and looked directly at him while he continued, “I just didn’t know that Hemmings could actually speak to girls, but okay. I’m sure you’re going to have a great time together.”

“Thank you, Michael, that’s really sweet of you,” Lynn replied before closing her locker door and walking off.

Luke stared at Clifford, who was now looking at him with a mocking grin, almost like he’d just stolen something very important from him. Luke wasn’t sure what to think right now, because obviously he’d won that round of battle – Lynn had rejected Clifford, after all!

“Well, Hemmings. She’s a nice girl, isn’t she?”

Clifford’s voice sounded suspiciously calm. He was up to something, Luke could tell, so he scowled at him and spat, “What do you want?” He desperately tried to make it sound like a threat - unfortunately, he wasn’t very good at that.

“Since when are you interested in my desires?” Clifford just smirked back and then he disappeared.

“I hate him,” Luke muttered angrily.

“No, you don’t.”

Luke spun around. When he saw the dark-haired boy who’d made that comment, he gasped. “What the hell? What’s that supposed to mean, Hood?”

“You don’t hate him,” the other boy repeated. The corners of his mouth were twitching now and for some reason that made Luke even angrier.

“Yes, I do!”

“Nope, definitely not.”

“Oh, fuck off!”

Hood raised an eyebrow. “You do realise that, unlike my best friend, I’m not keen on being insulted by you?”

“Yeah, cause he’s so keen on that. My ass!”

“That too. – Anyhow, I’ll see you around. Try not to kill each other before things are getting _really_ interesting, alright?”

“What,” Luke said utterly confused.

“God, you two are so stupid,” Hood sighed theatrically and sauntered off.

“What do you mean??” Luke shouted after him, almost tripping over his own feet in an attempt to follow him quickly.

“You’ll have to find out by yourself,” was the last thing he heard, and then Hood was gone and Luke wanted to scream in frustration.

He wanted to do that again when he left the school building a few hours later and found that his bike tyres had both been destroyed. Great, now he had to walk home – there wasn’t enough money left in his pockets to take the bus, and his two friends Liam and Niall had already headed home - which meant there wouldn’t be enough time to shower and get ready for his date. What kind of idiot would do that to him?!

Oh.

 _Ohhhh_.

“CLIFFORD!” he yelled at the newly red-haired boy who was standing only a few metres away from him and laughing so hard that the colour of his face slowly started to match his hair. 

“Seriously?” Hood said next to him and grabbed his arm to prevent him from toppling over. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Mikey. That’s just plain stupid.”

Luke had to admit that right now, he kind of liked Hood. Then again, he would’ve liked him even better if he’d just watched his friend fall to the ground without intervening.

“No, I think it’s hilarious.” Clifford was roaring with laughter by now and Luke wanted nothing more than to chop his damn head off. But at this very moment, Lynn out of all people walked by and smiled so sweetly at Luke that he actually forgot how to breathe. He just stood there and stared at her while she was leaving, and, okay, he probably looked really dumb right now.

Clifford seemed to share his thoughts. “Ya know, Hemmings, having that oh so cute little crush on her makes you look even more pathetic than usual,” he declared with an evil smirk. Then he picked his bike up from the ground and disappeared into the crowd of students.

Hood mumbled something that sounded like “What a complete idiot” and followed him, not without giving Luke an almost apologetic look though. Luke made a mental note to never think poorly of him ever again - which didn’t mean he planned on liking him either; he was Clifford’s best friend, after all. And Luke definitely didn’t want to have to deal with people who were friends with Clifford. Certainly not!

He left his bike where it was and started walking off the school grounds while pulling his phone out of his pocket to call his brother. Ashton went to another school but it wasn’t too far away and he already had his own car, so Luke hoped he’d pick him up and give him a ride home. And of course Ashton did him the favour and even promised to drive him to the pizza place where he was meeting Lynn.

When Luke arrived there five minutes early, Lynn was already there – “I’ve only been waiting for a minute, don’t worry Luke” – and they sat down at a nice little table in the middle of the room. Lynn was so, so beautiful and she kept smiling at him while they were ordering two cokes and a large pizza for two, but poor Luke felt so nervous that he thought he might throw up any second. How was he supposed to survive this date? He had no idea what to talk about, although he’d practised a little bit of doing conversation with Ash, but now that it was actually happening his mind went completely blank.

Lynn looked at him expectantly and Luke helplessly stared back, holding on to his glass like his life depended on it. “Um, so,” he finally managed to stutter out, silently cursing his awkward self and desperately trying to get his shit together, “thank you for, uh, doing this. With me. I mean, um, I … I really like –“

“Oh, wow, what a _coincidence_!”

Luke stopped mid-sentence and his eyes widened in horror. Oh no. No, no, this couldn’t be happening. He had to be dreaming right now, cause this was an absolute nightmare …

“Fancy meeting you guys here,” Clifford said, smirking down at the two of them with a smug expression on his face. Luke wanted to _kill_ him. “You’re having fun so far? This place is awesome, the food is so good.”

“Clifford.” At this point, Luke was pretty sure that he really looked like he was about to rise from his chair and murder that goddamn motherfucker. “Fuck. Off.”

Clifford clasped a hand over his own mouth in mock disapproval. “Hemmings, please. Don’t talk to me like that, there’s a lady right in front of you. A very nice looking lady, as I must add. And besides, there’s no need to get angry at me. I’m not planning on embarrassing you, if that’s what you’re worried about - you’re already doing an amazing job at that all by yourself.”

Before Luke could get up and punch him in the face, Lynn cleared her throat. “Um, Michael, would you mind leaving us alone? Actually, I’m having a great time with Luke and I’d like to keep it that way – without any further interruptions. You got that?”

Luke had to physically stop himself from jumping over the table and snogging her face off. He’d definitely made the right decision to ask this girl out, she was awesome.

“Oh, sure, no problem,” Clifford grinned, apparently not offended at all, and then he actually _winked_ at her. “If it gets too boring, though – I’m right over there, enjoying my pizza. See ya.”

Luke couldn’t believe that Clifford gave up so easily. That was definitely not what he’d expected from that fucking idiot and his non-existent manners and his stupid -

“FUCK!” he exclaimed in a high-pitched voice that wasn’t embarrassing _at all_ , nope, absolutely not, and nearly knocked his chair over in an attempt to scramble away from the table. Thanks to Clifford’s elbow, which had without any doubt _purposely_ collided with Luke’s glass, the tablecloth was now soaked in sticky coke – and so was Luke’s lap.

“Oh,” Clifford said in mock surprise, totally ignoring the fact that Luke’s eyes practically screamed murder, and pointed not so discreetly at Luke’s crotch, “look who just embarrassed himself.” And with that, he simply walked away.

Luke was going to kill him. For sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be uploading the next chapter in a week or so. Hope you liked the first one. :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Thanks for all the kudos and comments! :)
> 
> I had so much fun writing the second chapter. It's mostly Cashton plus a cute little girl, enjoy. ;)

**2.**

“Dude, just stop being so fucking ridiculous,” Calum all but screamed into his phone, which earned him a few disapproving looks from the people walking by.

“I’m not being ridiculous!”

“Yes you are!”

“I’m not. You’re my best friend, you should help me!”

“Help you doing _what_? Act like an arsehole around Hemmings? You don’t need any help with that, you’re already doing that perfectly on your own! I mean, ruining his date and soaking him in coke? Really, Mikey?”

“It was funny,” Michael protested, sounding a little bit offended. “You should’ve seen his face, he was so _angry_.”

“Yeah, I can imagine. If I were him, you’d be in so much trouble by now. But that’s probably what you want, right? Getting him so angry that he loses it and the two of you can finally be at each other’s throat …”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean,” Calum almost shouted at him. When he felt a little tug at his hand, he sighed. “Listen, Mikey, I’ve gotta go.”

“Are you babysitting again?”

“No, I’m … spending some quality time with my neighbours’ daughter. See ya,” Calum spluttered out before quickly ending the call and stuffing his phone back into his pocket. Michael loved teasing him about his job and Calum had, in all honesty, not the nerves to handle his mocking comments right now.

“Was that your friend Michael?” the girl who was standing next to him asked and squeezed his big hand in her little one.

“Yep.”

“I like him. He’s funny.”

“Yeah, most of the time. There’s just this one person he isn’t very nice to, and unfortunately I can’t get him to stop,” he explained with a sigh.

“I could tell him to stop,” she suggested, instantly bringing a smile to his face.

“Thanks Lily, that’s sweet of you,” he laughed softly.

She grinned up at him. “Can we go inside now, Cal? I’m so excited, I don’t want to wait any longer! Oh look, they even have some pretty flowers in the window!”

“Of course, sweetheart, that’s why we came here,” Calum grinned back. “And these flowers are really pretty.”

“Can I have one?” she asked while he pushed the door open.

“I’m not sure, Lily. They don’t sell flowers here, but I can get you one from another shop, alright? Roses are your favourites, aren’t they?”

“Yes! Thanks Cal!” she practically beamed at him, and then she was happily bouncing towards the counter and giggling at the boy who was standing behind it.

“Oh hi there, young lady,” said boy greeted her, and, wow, he was cute. Like, _really_ cute. His gorgeous face was framed with honey brown curls and his lips were curved into a beautiful smile that made Calum’s heart flutter in his chest.

“I’m Lily,” the eight-year-old told him and giggled a little bit more.

The boy was still smiling at her like she was the best thing he’d seen all day. “Hi Lily, I’m Ashton. How can I help you?”

“I asked my mummy if I could learn an instrument and she said yes, and so Cal and I came here to buy something, but I don’t know which instrument I want to learn, so I have to find out first!”

The boy – _Ashton_ , what a nice name, Calum thought – smiled even wider now. “Okay, Lily, do you want me to help you with that?”

“Yes! Please,” she giggled at him and then he actually _giggled_ back and Calum’s heart was about to burst because of that _fucking giggle_.

“Great, let’s start with the guitars, yeah?” Ashton suggested and left his place behind the counter.

“Come on, Cal,” Lily squealed, “you have to help me, too!”

Calum cleared his throat and then his gaze was meeting Ashton’s, who was suddenly looking at him. “Sure, sweetheart. I promised you, after all.”

Ashton smiled at him. “Hi Cal. I’m Ashton, but just call me Ash if you like. You’re Lily’s … older brother?”

“Oh, um, actually no, I’m … her neighbour,” Calum answered quickly and silently complimented himself on successfully avoiding the term _babysitter_.

“He’s my _friend_ ,” Lily corrected him. She sounded almost proud and Calum couldn’t stop himself from letting a small smile appear on his face. “And he’s great!” she added, making him blush a little. “He always spends time with me when my mummy and daddy can’t.”

“That’s very nice of him,” Ashton said to her while looking straight at Calum though, and Calum just couldn’t help the blush growing even more visible on his cheeks.

“I know! And he’s going to buy me a flower later, that’s so cool!”

“That’s pretty awesome, too,” Ashton agreed and then he bit his lips clearly amused. Suddenly Calum wanted to kiss him so, so badly and maybe that thought should’ve scared him, but … for some reason, it didn’t.

“You have so many guitars!” Lily exclaimed in delight. “Can you play them, Ash?”

“A little bit. I also play the drums, they’re my favourite thing in the world, and a little bit of piano and saxophone.”

“What’s a saxophone?”

“I’ll show you later, okay? Here, let me explain you a few things about guitars first.”

“Cal can play, too,” Lily stated, totally ignoring Ashton’s last comment. “Right, Cal?”

“Um, I play the bass,” the dark-haired murmured when Ashton looked at him expectantly, and then he patted Lily’s arm. “But we’re here to find an instrument for you, Lily, so just listen to everything Ash’s going to explain, yeah?”

“Sure,” she replied before turning back to Ashton and grinning at him widely.

He grinned back and for the next hour or so Calum didn’t hear a single word that was spoken around him, simply caused by the fact that he was too busy staring at Ashton’s lips and wondering how they’d feel on his own. Well, fuck.

Lily seemed to have a lot of fun, listening to Ashton’s explanations and begging him to play some instruments for her, which he did. When she finally told the boys that she definitely wanted to have a drum kit – “You’re so good at it, Ash, I want to become as good as you!” – Calum decided that it was time to intervene.

“Are you sure about that, Lily?” he asked. “I don’t know if your parents are going to like it, you know, playing the drums will make a lot of noise.”

“I can practise in the basement. Daddy said I could learn anything I wanted, even if it’s loud,” she protested with a pout.

Calum couldn’t stop himself from letting out a little laugh. “Alright, but let’s go home and discuss everything with your parents first. Oh, and you’re going to need someone who can teach you how to play,” he added while not so subtly looking at Ashton, and the curly head was suddenly grinning like a fool.

“I can teach her, if she wants.”

At this point, Calum didn’t even care anymore that he probably smiled a little too excitedly. “Great, I’ll suggest it to her parents. Come on, Lily, let’s go.”

“I don’t want to go. I like it here.”

“You can come back with your parents in a few days, alright?”

“But I want my drum kit now!” she whined.

“Well, your parents are buying it for you, so you’ll have to wait. Besides, we can’t take it home on the bus, we need your parents’ car,” he explained firmly. “Don’t argue with me, Lily.”

“He’s right,” Ashton said. Then he actually _winked_ at him and Calum tried his best not to blush furiously. He didn’t do a very good job at it, to be honest. “Just come back with your parents, young lady. What’s your favourite colour?”

“Blue.”

“See, that’s exactly why you should have a little patience. We don’t have a blue drum kit right now, but I can get one for you, okay?”

This finally seemed to convince her. “Okay. Thanks Ash!”

“My pleasure. See you next week, then,” he smiled back before turning towards Calum again and smiling even wider. “You should come, too, you know. Just to make sure they don’t get lost on their way here.”

A soft chuckle escaped Calum’s mouth. He couldn’t help it, Ashton’s presence just made him feel giddy all over. “Maybe I will. Do you work here every day?”

“Oh, yeah, except Tuesdays and Wednesdays. My mum wouldn’t let me work every day, I still go to school and have homework to do and stuff, so my shift never starts before four. Actually, you know what? Just talk to Lily’s parents and then give me a call … to tell me when they have time to come down here.”

“Sure. You should probably give me your number, then. I mean, I could call you here, but it might get late until they’re home, so the shop’s probably closed until then.” Calum knew he was rambling, and his reddened cheeks were about to explode, but he almost didn’t care. After all, it wasn’t his fault that Ashton was so cute!

“Okay,” Ashton giggled and ran towards the counter, where he grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled something down. Then he folded it twice and came back. “Here you go,” he said with a smile that made Calum’s heart burst once again, and shoved the note into his hand.

Calum cleared his throat. “Thanks. Um, we, we should probably go now. Come on, Lily, let’s get you that flower I promised you, and something to eat.”

“Oh, can I have ice cream?” she exclaimed and started bouncing around him excitedly.

“Definitely not, sweetheart. We had ice cream on our way here, but we can buy you a sandwich,” he said and took her hand. “Bye, Ash. Thanks for your help.”

“No problem. See ya,” Ashton replied with a little wave of his hand, and Lily beamed at him while Calum had to drag her out of the shop.

“He’s nice,” she told him happily when the door was closed behind them. “Do you think he’s cute, Cal?”

He almost tripped over his own feet. “What?”

“Ash. I think he’s cute. I also think he likes you.”

Calum’s face was burning. “And what makes you think that?”

“He was smiling at you the whole time.”

“No he wasn’t. He smiled at _you_.”

“Oh, don’t be stupid,” she sighed. “He obviously wants to see you again. You should be happy about that, I mean, you like him, too. Don’t lie to me, you looked at him the way Mummy and Daddy look at each other.”

Sometimes Calum hated the fact that he was babysitting such an intelligent eight-year-old. “People can like each other, there’s nothing wrong about that,” he finally answered. “Just don’t say anything like that to Ash, promise? I don’t want him to jump to conclusions.”

Lily smirked. “I promise if I can have some ice cream.”

“ _Lily_.”

“What? I like ice cream. It’s delicious.”

“You like flowers, too, and I’m about to buy you one. Don’t push it.”

“… fine, but only because I like you.”

“Wow. That’s very generous of you,” he grinned and squeezed her little hand.

“Yeah, I know. So, about your friend Michael. You want me to talk to him?” she asked, looking at him with such a serious expression on her face that he had to bite back a laugh.

“What do you want to say to him, then?”

“That he should be nice to everyone. Well, except for Maddie from my school, she’s stupid.”

Calum stopped right in front of the flower shop. “Listen, Lily …”

“What? She’s not nice to anyone, either!”

“Yeah, maybe, but that’s no reason to –“ But Calum was cut off mid-sentence by a voice somewhere behind them shouting, “Hey, Cal, wait!”

He turned around, only to see his best friend running towards him, and Lily started to grin. “Now I can tell him,” she giggled and then all of a sudden tried to look very serious. “Hello, Michael. We have to talk.”

“What,” he said, looking at her utterly confused.

“Hi dumbass,” Calum muttered and rolled his eyes. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, the pizzeria is only two streets away, as you know, and I wanted to get some ice cream for dessert. There’s this great ice cream parlour down the street,” Michael began, but was promptly interrupted by Calum, “Shut up, don’t talk about ice cream.”

Lily chuckled. “You think he could buy me some?”

“No, absolutely not. Now go ahead, you wanted to tell him something.”

Michael seemed even more confused now. “What is going on here?”

“I just wanted to tell you that you have to be nice to people,” Lily explained with a serious expression on her face. “To _all_ people,” she pointed out. “Except for Maddie from my school, she is a –“

“See, Mikey,” Calum said quickly, “she agrees with me, she thinks you shouldn’t act like an arsehole around Hemmings.”

Michael raised his pierced eyebrow. “Do her parents know that you use words like this in front of her?”

“He learns those words from me,” Lily stated dryly.

“I like her,” Michael told Calum and grinned at the little girl. 

Calum let out a desperate groan. “I don’t deserve this. And the point is, stop your stupid behaviour and apologise for ruining Hemming’s date.”

“Why would you do that?” Lily asked Michael before he could even reply to his friend. “It’s not very nice to ruin things for other people. Only bad people do that, and I don’t think you’re bad. You’re funny and nice whenever I meet you.”

Michael stared at her in disbelief. “How old are you again?”

“I’m eight.”

“That’s unbelievable.”

“Welcome to my world,” Calum murmured with a sigh.

“What are you doing here, anyway?” Michael tried to change the subject.

“My mummy and daddy want me to learn an instrument, so Cal and I went to a music shop,” Lily told him proudly. “I’m going to learn how to play the drums!”

“Oh, that’s cool,” Michael grinned at her. “Then we can finally start a band. We don’t have a drummer yet.”

“Ash is a drummer,” Lily said and Calum looked at her with an almost horrified expression on his face. If she actually told Michael about Ashton, Calum was never going to hear the end of it.

“Who’s Ash?” Great, of course Michael had to ask.

Lily looked at Calum and then, after a few seconds, she shrugged. “The guy who works at the music shop. He’s really nice. – Come on, Cal, let’s get that flower and then something to eat, I’m starving!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it! Tell me what you think? :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, first of all: How cute was Ashton's [birthday message](http://instagram.com/p/ySgmnxvV1-/?modal=true/) for Calum?!? They're sooo adorable. <3
> 
> Enjoy the new chapter, everyone. :)

**3.**

“Hi Mum,” Luke said, trying to sound as casual as possible, and kicked his shoes off his feet.

“Luke!” she squeaked and pulled him into a hug. “How was your date?”

“It was alright, I guess …” He blushed a little and cleared his throat. “I’ll be in my room.”

“Hold on. What do you mean, it was alright?”

He shrugged. “We decided to be friends. Please stop asking.”

“Oh Luke, I’m so sorry. But at least she likes you as a friend, right? Maybe she just doesn’t quite understand her own feelings towards you. Sometimes it takes people a little time to realise what someone else really means to them. Don’t worry, honey, I’m sure sooner or later she’ll –“

“Muuum,” he interrupted her with a pained expression on his face. “ _Please_. She’s not going to fall in love with me.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Maybe I don’t want her to anymore. I like her, okay? Only as a friend though, and I’ve discussed it with her, it’s all good. Please don’t mention it again,” he pleaded and gave her a reassuring smile before turning around and heading to his room.

He sat down on his bed and pulled his phone out of his pocket. His friend Niall had sent him a text message about an hour ago, asking how the date was going and casually mentioning the fact that Liam had invited him over for the weekend, since his parents weren’t home. Luke bit back a grin and decided to call him.

“I’m desperate,” Niall said after picking up immediately. “It’s finally happening, Luke, I’m going to have sex with my boyfriend, and I _don’t know what to do_!”

“Neither does Liam,” Luke replied dryly. “You’re gonna figure it out together, I guess? Don’t freak out, at least you’ve already seen each other naked.”

“I know, I know.” Niall’s voice was shaking by now. “I don’t know why I’m being so ridiculous, I mean, we’ve jerked each other off plenty of times, let alone the amount of blowjobs we’ve –“

“Please, no details, Nialler.”

“Right, sorry. I just … I’ve never been so nervous _in my whole life_ … Anyhow, how was your date with Lynn?”

“It was okay,” Luke answered after a short moment of silence. “Listen, Niall, I’m going to tell you after the weekend, alright? Just … um, have fun?”

Niall choked out a laugh. “Yeah, I’ll try. I’ve gotta go, Luke. See ya.”

“Bye,” Luke said and ended the call.

Five minutes later his brother decided to peek into the room. “Hey Lukey. Mum just mentioned a few things you told her. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” Luke groaned but motioned for him to come in and close the door. “Okay, fine. The date went pretty good, actually. I mean, at first we didn’t really talk and it was so awkward … And then Clifford showed up and tried to ruin the whole thing.”

Ashton’s eyes widened. “What? Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously.”

“That’s … unbelievable.”

“That’s one way to put it, yes. Lynn was being really sweet though, she even stayed with me after fucking Clifford had soaked me in coke.”

“He _what_?! Okay, now I get it why you hate him. I can’t believe someone would do that!” Ashton was gnashing his teeth in anger now and Luke almost got a little scared. His brother usually stayed so calm, even if he got angry.

“It’s okay, Ash. Actually, it was kind of funny what happened next. One of the waiters is friends with Lynn, so he got me some clean clothes from his locker and added a little extra chili to Clifford’s pizza. You should’ve seen that, Clifford had tears streaming down his stupid face. It was amazing.” Suddenly Luke couldn’t seem to stop giggling, he almost fell off his bed, and Ashton simply decided to join him.

“Okay, but what about Lynn? What happened next?” he asked after a minute or so and plopped down beside him.

“Well, after the _Clifford incident_ we just started talking. She asked me about my favourite music and stuff, and the food was really good. Then she told me she liked me and I told her I liked her back …” Luke was blushing again and looking almost embarrassed, and Ashton tried not to grin too overly excited.

He failed. “That’s awesome! Why did you tell Mum that you decided to be just friends?”

“Because it’s the truth. The date was fun but … after pizza and dessert we went for a walk in the park, and it was really, really nice … And then she suddenly kissed me. No, no, wait,” he sighed when Ashton let out a high-pitched squeak. “To be completely honest, it was so … weird.”

Ashton stared at him in disbelief. “What? Why would you think that kissing a girl you like feels _weird_? Lukey, are you okay? Do you need to see a doctor?”

“Shut up, I’m not crazy,” Luke murmured. “Besides, we’ve already discussed it. It just didn’t feel right, you know, neither for me nor for her. We like each other, but there weren’t any sparks when we kissed. It was like kissing … a friend.”

Ashton stayed silent for a few moments. Then he nodded in sympathy and pulled him in for a hug. “I see. So … you’ve got a new friend then. That’s great, too, don’t you think?”

“Of course. I mean, I’m probably still a bit disappointed that I didn’t like kissing her, but I’ll get over it eventually. She’s cool, so it’s fine. Oh, she even offered to help, just in case I want to take revenge on Clifford. She’s so badass, it’s awesome,” Luke chuckled and snuggled closer to his brother.

The cuddle session was interrupted only a few minutes later, when suddenly a phone started to ring, and Luke was nearly sent to the floor by Ashton’s elbow. “Ouch!” he shrieked but was totally being ignored by his brother who was hectically trying to pull his phone out of his pocket. “Fuck!” the older one cursed when it slid through his fingers and crashed to the floor, and then he was half-dangling from the bed and desperately reaching for it.

Luke raised an eyebrow. “Are you okay, Ash?”

“No!” Ashton practically screamed and kept grabbing for his phone. “It’s important! Fuck, fuck, FUCK …” And then he fell silent and stared at the screen in absolute horror. Apparently he’d just realised that his phone had already stopped ringing, and that somehow he must’ve had accepted the call before the phone had even hit the ground.

“Um, Ash?” Luke said, nudging him softly. “You should probably talk to whoever called you there.”

Ashton cleared his throat. “Hello?” he whispered into his phone after finally picking it up from the floor. “Um, no, you didn’t call the wrong number, it’s me, Ash. No, no, I’m fine, I just … I was expecting an important call from a classmate and my phone fell to the floor and for a second I thought it was broken, sorry. – Oh, no, don’t worry, we can talk, I’ll just call him later.”

“Who is that?” Luke mouthed at him with wide eyes. His brother was totally lying to that person, _this_ was definitely the phone call he’d been waiting for; otherwise he wouldn’t have blushed and stuttered and made a complete fool out of himself while trying to form coherent sentences.

But once again, Luke was being ignored, and Ashton scrambled off the bed and rushed out of the room without even looking at him. Okay, in conclusion: Ashton had a crush on someone, and Luke had always been incredibly curious about stuff that was none of his business. He blamed it on his mum and her never-ending interest in everyone’s lives, really.

Ashton, however, didn’t tell him much about it. “We had a very cute customer today and he asked for my number,” was all Luke got out of him when he practically begged him to spill everything later. And, okay, maybe he was a little jealous. Unlike himself, his brother had obviously met someone who found him attractive, and Luke was extremely frustrated about his own bad luck.

He had actually kissed a girl – a girl he liked, a girl who _liked him back_ – but they couldn’t be more than friends, due to the simple lack of deeper feelings towards each other, and it was just _not fair_. He felt betrayed by his own heart and soul, and he absolutely didn’t get it. Why? Why couldn’t he just like Lynn more than in a platonic way?!?

Despite the fact that it was nobody’s fault, Luke’s mind somehow found a particular person guilty. So when he entered the school hallway on Monday and instantly met Clifford’s gaze, he suddenly felt a hot wave of anger bubble up inside him.

Ten seconds later Clifford was being shoved up against a locker. “Fuck you, Clifford!” Luke spat at him, totally ignoring the fact that _everyone_ was staring at them, and tightened his grip on Clifford’s shirt.

Clifford looked like he was ready to murder him and of course he started defending himself now, kicking at Luke’s legs and pushing him backwards. “No, fuck _you_ , Hemmings!” he cursed when they bumped into another locker, unintentionally sending two of the younger students to the floor in the progress.

Some of the people around them were cheering them on now and a couple of girls started giggling and whispering - “That’s kind of hot actually, let’s ship them!” – but Luke didn’t realise any of that, being too busy kicking Clifford’s arse, or at least trying to. It wasn’t until they were separated by the headmaster himself that he noticed there was blood running down his face.

“Detention, both of you,” the headmaster yelled. “I don’t care who started it, this behaviour is unacceptable.”

“But I was just defending myself!” Clifford shouted angrily. “He attacked me!”

“You deserved it!” Luke hissed while wiping blood off his face. _That’s a lot of blood_ , he thought. He should probably go and see the school nurse.

“Quiet, both of you! Your detention starts today after school and ends on Friday. Maybe two hours of daily extra work are going to stop you from beating each other up in the future,” the headmaster snarled before turning around and stalking towards his office.

“This is all your fault!” Clifford screamed at Luke.

Before they could go back to pushing each other through the hallway, Clifford’s best friend appeared out of nowhere. “You two are such idiots,” he groaned, grabbing Clifford’s arm and dragging him away.

Luke’s only satisfaction consisted of the fact that Clifford’s nose was bleeding just as much as his own.

“Hey Luke. Are you okay?”

He startled and turned around. “Oh. Hi Lynn. I’m fine, don’t worry.”

She sent him a concerned smile. “You have blood smeared all over your face. Come on, let’s go to the nurse.”

Suddenly he felt a bit ashamed. “I just … seeing him made me so angry,” he mumbled.

“I understand that, really, he was being awful to you. I just don’t understand why he treats you like that, I mean, he usually seems like a nice guy. But when he tried to ruin our date so obviously, he seemed like … I don’t know. Some jealous ex-boyfriend, I think. Um, the two of you weren’t … like, seeing each other?”

Luke nearly choked on air. “ _What_?”

“You don’t have to answer that, it’s actually none of my business. I’m sorry, just ignore me,” she didn’t even hesitate to apologise.

But Luke kept staring at her with an absolutely horrified expression on his burning face, his eyes almost tumbling out of his head. “Why would you even think that?!”

“I don’t know. He just seemed jealous.”

“Maybe he is. He asked you out, he’s probably interested in you.”

“I doubt that. He didn’t seem interested in me, at all.”

“Well, he’s certainly not interested in _me_ , he’s just being an idiot. And, Lynn, we … we were never _seeing_ each other. Never.” Luke shook his head, still looking shocked. “God, I’d rather stay alone for the rest of my life!”

He didn’t miss the little smirk that appeared on Lynn’s face after that, but chose to ignore it; just like he chose to ignore Clifford for the rest of the day. Even when they both showed up to detention in the afternoon, he just walked past him without so much as glancing at him.

“Alright, troublemakers,” the headmaster said in a stern voice. “Today, you two are on cleaning duty. Outside, on the school grounds.”

Luke silently cursed himself for being stupid enough to start a fight in the middle of the hallway, in front of a million witnesses. Clifford probably cursed him, too, but Luke couldn’t have cared less at the moment. The more important issue right now was the temperatures outside. This was so much worse than just sitting in an empty classroom while waiting for detention to be over.

“Fuck, stupid sun,” Clifford grumbled after ten minutes of picking garbage up from the ground.

“We live in Australia, genius. Maybe you should move to another country.” Great, so much for ignoring the twat.

“Shut up, Hemmings. This is all your fault!”

“Oh really? Maybe you shouldn’t have tried to ruin my life then!”

“You have a life? Well, it’s for sure not a social one,” Clifford teased him and Luke was about to punch him again, but then he froze on the spot and stared at him wide-eyed.

“What are you doing, Clifford?”

“Well, what does it look like?”

“You … you aren’t actually taking off your clothes, are you?” Luke spluttered and felt his cheeks heat up.

Clifford looked like he was about to start roaring with laughter. “Only the shirt, there’s nothing scandalous about that. It’s hot and I’m sweating.”

“That’s no excuse, you can’t just take off your clothes _at school_!”

“Why, is it distracting you?” Clifford smirked and raised an eyebrow, and Luke wanted something heavy to fall from the sky and hit that idiot right on the head.

“It’s not distracting at all,” he stated as bored as he could manage and, okay, that was a total lie. Even though he hated him, he had to admit that Clifford actually had a great body. Damn it.

“Oh _really_ ,” Clifford said and his smirk grew even wider.

Luke quickly made the decision not to put up with his shit. “Yes, really,” he shrugged while also pulling his shirt over his head, and tried not to look too smug about it when Clifford’s smirk fell right off his stupid face.

“Oh, so _you_ are allowed to do that on school grounds?” Clifford’s voice was shaking a little bit and Luke desperately tried not to think about it.

“Shut up, idiot,” was the only thing he replied before going back to work, and for once Clifford actually did so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, detention for a whole week. Things are going to get interesting, I promise. (And I'll make sure they don't kill each other.^^)
> 
> Please leave kudos and comments! :)


	4. Chapter 4

**4.**

“Um, hi,” Calum said in a breathless voice, his lips curving up into an apologetic smile, “sorry for being late, Ash. I think that bus driver must’ve been half asleep or something, it took us forever to get here.”

Ashton just laughed and pulled him into a quick hug that made him feel slightly dizzy; he smelled really good and his strong arms felt like home, and Calum wasn’t so sure he could handle it without making a complete fool of himself. “It’s cool, don’t worry, I’ve only waited here for like five minutes.”

“I’m sorry,” Calum repeated nevertheless. “I should’ve texted you, I just kind of forgot.”

“Hey, it’s okay, I promise. C’mon, let’s go inside, shall we?”

“Sure,” Calum replied and followed him through the door.

“Have you been here before?” Ashton asked when they’d sat down at a table, and let his gaze wander around the room. “It’s really nice here, my brother told me about it.”

“Oh, yeah, a few times. It’s Michael’s favourite pizza place,” Calum explained while trying not to drool too obviously. Ashton looked absolutely stunning; he was wearing black skinny jeans and a black tank top, and his curls were being held up by a dark blue headband. Calum still couldn’t believe that Ashton had asked him out after only a few texts they’d sent each other during the past few days, and that one phone call about Lily and her drums last Friday night.

“Michael?” Ashton raised a brow and Calum remembered, right, they hadn’t talked about their families and friends yet.

“My best friend,” he clarified quickly.

A relieved smile flickered across Ashton’s face. “Oh. Good.”

Calum cleared his throat. “Yeah. We go to school together. I suppose you don’t go to Norwest Christian College? At least I’ve never seen you there …”

Ashton’s whole face lit up at that. “No, I go to Richmond High School. My brother’s at your school, though. Maybe you even know him, he’s in Year 10.”

“Really? Me too! What’s his name?” Calum asked, suddenly feeling a bit nervous. He couldn’t just go ahead and date the brother of one of his classmates, could he?

“Luke. Luke Hemmings.”

Calum’s eyes widened almost comically. “ _Luke_?!” he squeaked, nearly choking on air. “Oh my god, are you serious?!”

“Um … yes.” Ashton looked a little worried now. “Why, has he done anything wrong?”

Calum didn’t know whether to laugh hysterically or not. “You might want to ask that my best friend who got detention with him for the whole week.”

“Wait,” Ashton said after a short moment of silence and his eyes widened as well. “Michael as in _Michael Clifford_? That’s your best friend?!?”

“Yeah.” Calum bit his lips. He definitely didn’t want Ashton to hate him, just because Michael was being an idiot towards his brother. “I don’t know if Luke has ever told you anything about me but … um, I think you should know that lately I’ve tried to stop Michael. He just won’t listen to me.”

“Okay.” Ashton shook his head and then he suddenly burst out laughing.

“Um,” Calum mumbled, staring at him confused.

“Don’t worry, Cal,” he chuckled, smiling at him again. “Luke never mentioned you. We should probably not tell them about meeting each other, though … Getting detention together made them angry enough, I guess.”

Calum opened his mouth to agree, but was interrupted by a waitress who appeared at the table to take their orders. It didn’t take her long to bring their drinks and also their food, which was absolutely delicious, and soon they were talking and laughing and just having a great time together.

It wasn’t until Calum’s phone was ringing that they stopped their conversation for a minute, and Calum actually considered not answering when he saw the name on the display. But he didn’t want Michael to get suspicious, so he picked up eventually and tried to hold back a sigh.

“Dude, where are you?” Michael asked. “Are you babysitting again?”

“Um, no, not today,” Calum replied slowly. “Why?”

“Well, I’m standing in front of your house and nobody’s answering the door.”

Calum couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes. “I’m not home, obviously.”

“But where are you? Seriously, Cal, I need you to distract me from that shitty week I’m having. You have no idea what it’s like to be stuck with Hemmings every day!”

“Oh come on, drama queen, it’s already Wednesday, you only have to suffer through it for two more days. And I can’t go home now, I’m meeting up with … an old friend of mine.” He saw Ashton grin at that comment and shrugged, helplessly grinning back.

“An old friend of yours? Do I know him?” Michael didn’t sound very convinced and, well, fuck it.

“No, you don’t know him, Mikey. Please stop asking questions and just go home, alright? I’ll see you tomorrow at school. Bye.”

“Wait, are you –“

“ _Bye_ , Michael,” Calum repeated before resolutely ending the call.

“We should definitely not tell them,” Ashton said and winked at him. “Let it be our little secret for a while, yeah?”

“Absolutely. Michael is going to kill me otherwise.”

“Hell no, I’ll protect you,” and he winked again, making Calum feel hot all over.

“Thanks, I appreciate that. You don’t know him though, he can get very angry.”

Now Ashton giggled, and Calum wanted to keep him so, so desperately. “’m not so sure about that, Cal. I’ve heard a lot about him from my brother. If Luke wrote everything down instead of telling me, it would probably be a book by now.”

“Yeah, that’s mutual. There are days when Michael just won’t shut up about how much Luke annoys him. And to be completely honest with you – there’s just so much sexual tension between them, it almost scares me sometimes,” Calum blurted out and blushed a little.

“Sexual tension, huh?” Suddenly Ashton couldn’t seem to stop smirking. “That’s interesting. Very interesting. We should do something about that, don’t you think?”

Calum let out a little laugh. “You do realise that they’re both going to murder us then, right?”

“Not gonna happen, don’t worry. I’m pretty strong, you know, since I play the drums and all.” Ashton was still smirking at him and for some reason, his choice of words made Calum blush even more.

“Never doubted that,” he mumbled, biting his lips.

Luckily, Ashton changed the subject after that and when they left the pizzeria an hour later, they’d almost forgotten about the feud between Calum’s best friend and Ashton’s younger brother. “So,” Ashton began, seeming a little hesitant at first, “I, um, really liked that.”

A small smile played on Calum’s lips. “Me too. Maybe … we could do that again?”

“I’d love to,” Ashton nodded in agreement and smiled back at him happily. “How about Friday? I can finish work around seven.”

Calum didn’t even try to ignore the butterflies in his stomach anymore. “Great. Do you want to go see a movie or something?”

“Sure.” Ashton’s smile grew even wider.

“Great,” Calum repeated with a dopey grin on his face. He just hoped it would look rather cute than stupid.

Ashton let out a light chuckle. “I, um, could drive you home? If you want me to, I mean.”

“Sure, if you don’t mind,” Calum replied after considering it for a few seconds. He really didn’t want his parents to see them and bother him with questions, but he also didn’t want to say goodbye yet.

Ashton didn’t seem to mind at all, so they got into his car and the older boy turned on the radio. At some point, they both started to sing along and when the song had finished, they looked at each other and said in unison, “You’ve got a great voice.” This led them into a fit of giggles and Calum wondered if he’d ever liked someone as much as Ashton. Being with him just felt so good, so natural, so –

“Um, you can stop here,” he said, interrupting his own thoughts, and Ashton quickly pulled over.

“Is that your parents’ house?” he asked when he’d shut off the engine, and Calum’s face went slightly red.

“Um, actually … no, it’s not. This is number nine, I live in number fifteen. I just … my mum can be very curious and, um …”

Ashton let out a giggle and once again, Calum wanted to put it into his pocket and keep it forever. “Yeah, I get it,” the older boy assured him and winked at him. “My mum loves being curious, too. It can get quite annoying, I totally understand.”

“Oh, good.” Calum felt a little relieved after that. “I always thought my mum was the worst when it comes to an extreme interest in other people’s lives.”

“Definitely not. Once in Year 8, when I had a girl over after school, she kept coming into my room to check on us. I swear, we were only doing our homework together, but my mum ended up calling my friend’s mum and talking to her on the phone for _hours_. I think they probably even started planning the wedding.” Ashton was grinning widely now, his dimples on full display, and Calum had to stop himself from leaning over and snogging his face off.

“Well,” he cleared his throat, “my mum had a talk with me once about how she didn’t want me to become a thirteen-year-old dad. She did that with the girl I had a crush on standing _right next to us_.”

“Oh,” Ashton said, and then he burst out laughing. “Okay, Cal, you win.”

Calum shrugged and bit back a grin. And suddenly he blurted out, “I guess it’s a good thing then that I’m not overly interested in girls anymore.”

A bright smile appeared on Ashton’s lips. “Yeah, that’s definitely a good thing. I mean, um, it’s not a bad thing. It’s totally fine. I’m not too interested in girls, either. I mean, they’re nice. I just …”

Calum nodded, a visible blush creeping on his cheeks. “It’s okay to be with whoever you like.”

“Yeah,” Ashton whispered, looking at him intensely. His lips were curving into an even bigger smile now, and for a second or two Calum was absolutely positive that Ashton would lean over and kiss him right then and there. He could see it in Ashton’s sparkling eyes, it felt like watching fireworks …

But then the moment was over and Ashton pulled out his ringing phone and cursed under his breath. “Sorry,” he murmured while glancing at it, “it’s a friend of mine, I should probably answer that …”

“Oh, sure, no problem.” Calum decided not to mention the fact that he wanted to grab the damn thing and break it, and looked out of the window instead.

“Hi Harry,” Ashton grumbled only a few seconds later. “Can I call you back? It’s just, I have – what? On Friday? This Friday? Shit, I totally forgot. No, no, I know I promised to be there, but … Listen, I’ll call you back later, alright?” He sent Calum an apologetic look and Calum smiled at him reassuringly, trying not to look too disappointed.

“It’s okay,” he mouthed and Ashton actually seemed to relax after that.

“Harry, stop sulking. You know I keep my promises, so I guess I’m coming to your goddamn party,” he sighed into his phone, and then his eyes suddenly went wide. “Um, Harry? What was that noise I just heard? – Oh for fuck’s sake, Harry, would you just tell Louis to stop biting you when you’re talking to me?!”

“Your friends seem … nice,” Calum said when Ashton had ended the call a few moments later, and tried to hide a grin.

“They’re idiots.” Ashton shrugged and grinned back at him. “But I love them anyway. In a platonic way, of course. They’re so madly in love with each other, it’s ridiculous.”

“Oh. Are they dating?”

“Yep. Listen, Cal, I’m so sorry, they’re throwing a party on Friday and I promised to come, like, ages ago. But I was wondering if, um, maybe you’d like to come, too?”

“Sure,” Calum replied, trying his best not to blush at Ashton’s question, which had sounded way too inappropriate in his own head.

Ashton didn’t even seem to notice, he just smiled happily. “Great! And I’m really sorry, I just completely forgot about that party, I don’t even know why. They’ve been talking about it for weeks, I guess I just kind of stopped listening at some point, and –“

“Ash,” Calum interrupted him with an almost fond smile on his face. “It’s fine, really, you don’t have to apologise.”

“Oh.” Ashton bit his lips and Calum tried his hardest not to stare. “Okay. But, um, if you still want to see a movie together, we could do that later at the weekend? Maybe on Saturday?”

“I’d love to, but I’m spending this Saturday with Lily. Her parents were invited to a wedding and she wasn’t interested in going with them, so they asked me to look after her,” Calum explained and couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed about his job again.

Ashton’s whole face, however, suddenly lit up. “Oh, that’s fine. She’s such a sweet little girl! I, um, could join the two of you, if you don’t mind? And if her parents don’t mind, of course.”

“Really?” Calum asked incredulously, not believing his ears.

Ashton let out a nervous laugh. “Sorry. It’s totally fine if you don’t want me to.”

“No, no … don’t get me wrong, I’d really like that,” Calum spluttered out and felt his cheeks going hot. “I’m just … surprised, I guess? I thought you might find it boring …”

“Not at all.” Ashton smiled at him again, making Calum’s heart flutter in his chest. “How about we ask her parents tomorrow, when you pick up the drums?”

“That’s actually a great idea, Lily seems to like you a lot. She’ll probably convince them within half a minute.”

“We’ll see. So, um, about Friday. Do you want me to pick you up?” Ashton asked, shifting a little awkwardly in his seat.

Calum nodded in agreement. “Sure, that would be – oh. No, hold on. Actually, I have a better idea. How about we pretend we’re going alone and then ask two certain stubborn idiots if they want to come, too?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your lovely comments and for all the kudos! I'm so happy you guys like the story!
> 
> Please let me know what you think of this chapter. The next one will be uploaded in five days. :)


	5. Chapter 5

**5.**

“Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to detention. Today you’ll be working in the library, so follow me.”

Luke felt almost relieved. It was Thursday, their fourth day of detention, and unlike during the past three days he didn’t have to spend it only with Clifford, since a few other students had been given detention as well. This couldn’t be too bad, right?

“Hey, Luke,” Jesy, a girl from Year 9, said to him as they approached the library. She lived in his neighbourhood, so they’d known each other for a couple of years. “Haven’t seen you in a while, how are you doing?”

“Oh, hi Jesy,” he smiled back at her. “I, uh, I’m fine. How are you?”

She opened her mouth in an attempt to answer but was promptly prevented from doing so by the headmaster. “No talking during the next two hours; don’t even think about disturbing your schoolmates, who are actually willing to learn something!”

Luke saw Clifford roll his eyes at that and for once he had to agree with him. This was absolutely ridiculous.

“Follow me,” the headmaster bellowed before entering the library and nodding at the very few students who were sitting at the tables and working either on their homework or a school project. And before Luke knew it, he was told to spend the next two hours collecting left-behind books and re-arranging them in the respective shelves.

“Wow, that sounds boring,” Jesy whispered and he couldn’t help but giggle at her for that comment.

The headmaster shot them a warning look, disappearing out of the room and leaving the door half open. “I’ll be back to see if you’re actually working,” was the last thing they heard before he was gone.

“This is ridiculous,” Clifford declared. “I’m just gonna take a nap.”

Luke tried his best to ignore him, but of course the words slipped from his tongue way too easily when it came to his arch enemy. “Yeah, well, nobody asked for your opinion, Clifford.”

Clifford raised his pierced eyebrow, definitely not distracting Luke with the movement, nope, not at all. “Did you say something, Hemmings? I couldn’t hear you through that wall of non-existent social life around you.”

“What the …” Jesy murmured, taking one step closer towards Luke and looking at him expectantly. And, yeah, Luke was so not okay with being embarrassed _again_. Oh no, not today, and especially not by that fucking arsehole Clifford!

“Oh, you mean that wall that’s called _I’m-currently-talking-to-a-girl-while-you’re-standing-there-all-by-yourself_?” he scoffed with an almost smug expression on his face.

Clifford, however, wasn’t one to surrender that easily, or rather not at all. “Hold on, Hemmings, you’re not being logical. You can’t talk to girls, remember? I mean, being your awkward little self and –“

“I’m not seeing _you_ talk to one!” Luke spat at him.

“Luke isn’t awkward though,” Jesy chipped in, reaching for Luke’s arm and smiling at him reassuringly.

Clifford ignored her. “Oh please, Hemmings, we both know that I talk more to girls in an hour than you’ve been doing in your entire life.”

“At least I have other stuff to do than talk to people!” Luke all but yelled at him, causing the whole bunch of other students to stare at them with wide eyes and clearly hope for more drama to happen. “Because my life is interesting, unlike yours! All you ever do is try to make other people feel bad about themselves!”

“Well, looking at you proves me that it works pretty damn well, so I’m not going to complain.”

For a split second, Luke was actually speechless. Then he saw the challenging look in Clifford’s eyes and that was all it took for him to lunge forward and push him against the nearest shelf, “Fuck off, Clifford, _I hate you_!!!”

“Would you two just shut up?” some dark-haired boy shouted from one of the tables nearby. “I’m trying to get my homework done! God, you two are so annoying!”

He was being ignored by practically everyone in this room, as most of the students only seemed to wait for them to be quite literally at each other’s throats. They didn’t have to wait long, because of course Clifford was pushing back now and caused Luke to stumble against another bookshelf.

The only one to look a little worried was Jesy. “Guys, come on, stop. Please, Luke, don’t –“

“I’m so sick of you and your stupid face!” Luke screamed, not even realising that a few books had fallen out of the shelf behind him and crashed to the floor.

“My face is not stupid!”

“Yes it is! Just like everything else about you!”

“Oh, you’re one to talk!”

“I’m not stupid, unlike you!”

“Yes you are!”

“Guys,” Jesy tried to intervene again, but of course she was still being ignored, just like the rest of the students.

Luke managed to free himself from Clifford’s tight grip by kicking at him like crazy, only to trip over his own feet and collide with yet another shelf. A few more books slid out and dropped to the floor, and Luke heard Clifford sneer loudly behind him.

“See, Bambi? You don’t even need me to get embarrassed, you’re doing it all by yourself.”

Luke spun around, his entire body shaking with anger, and clenched his fists. “Shut the fuck up! I swear, I’m gonna kill –“

“What the hell is going on here?”

Everyone in the room froze, including the dark-haired boy at the table, who was still trying to concentrate on his homework. However, he was the first one to speak, “These two over there were having a fight, Sir.”

Clifford shot him a threatening glare and the boy immediately rose from his chair and sprinted out of the library with a downright terrified expression on his face, even leaving his books behind. Luke couldn’t believe it. How could anyone actually be _scared_ of Clifford? He was annoying and stupid and most likely the biggest twat on the planet, but he wasn’t _frightening_.

The headmaster raised an eyebrow, clearly not being amused. “Everyone, out. Now. Detention is over,” he finally said with a wave of his hand. “Oh no, not you, Clifford. You and Hemmings are going to stay here until this room is cleaned up. I don’t care how long it takes - and don’t even think about arguing with me.”

Luke’s first instinct was to grab one of the heaviest books available and smash it right into Clifford’s face. This was an absolute nightmare, it would take _ages_ to do this without the help of the others. If only he had ignored Clifford rather than responding to his provocation!

“Thanks, guys,” one of the other boys from detention said with a smirk. Luke kind of wanted to punch him and Clifford looked like he totally agreed with that thought.

When the others had left, the headmaster spoke again. “Alright then, boys. You’re not leaving until I say so.”

“We can’t do this all on our own,” Clifford muttered, stubbornly crossing his arms over his chest. “My mother is going to be worried sick!”

“Oh really? In that case, I’ll just call her right now to explain why her son has to stay at school even longer.” And just like that, the man left the room.

“Fuck!” Clifford kicked at a chair, sending it a few metres across the room, and then looked at Luke like he wanted to repeat that with him.

Luke decided that he’d have enough of it. “Get to work, arsehole, I’m not going to do it all alone!”

“Fuck you,” Clifford simply replied and disappeared between the shelves.

Luke blinked in confusion for a moment. He’d honestly not expected him to give in that easily and for a second or two he almost felt offended. Which was absurd, really, because why for fuck’s sake would he be offended by Clifford not trying to get on his nerves as long as possible?

Luke was so caught up in his confusing thoughts that he didn’t even realise the door was being opened again. “Why are you still standing there?” He startled, then turned around and let out a sigh. Great, the headmaster was back. Apparently he wanted to make sure that they were both doing the work, not just one of them.

“Sorry,” he mumbled and walked towards a table where several books were lying around. First, he arranged them into different piles and then grabbed the first stack, which consisted only of dictionaries.

“If you keep working that slowly, we’ll never get out of here.”

Luke suppressed the urge to throw the whole pile right at Clifford’s head. “Shut up, idiot. Don’t you dare tell me what to do!”

“Well, I won’t stay here the whole night just because you’re lame as fuck,” Clifford continued to complain.

“Quiet, both of you!” the headmaster yelled at them, an expression of utter annoyance plastered on his face. “If you keep talking to each other, I’ll make you stay here till midnight!”

“You can’t do that!” Clifford protested immediately.

“I’m warning you, both of you. Do you want to spend the entire weekend here at the school cleaning up the mess hundreds of students have made during the week? No? Then shut up!”

That was when Luke decided that he’d never talk to Clifford again, ever. That twat definitely wasn’t worth the trouble he kept getting himself into because of him. However, when he arrived at home four hours later, hungry and exhausted and tired as hell, and his mum shot him a knowing glance, Luke just couldn’t stop himself from exploding into a fireball of anger and frustration.

“I’m going to kill him! He’s such an idiot! Mum, please, I don’t want to go to this stupid school anymore! Can I go to Ash’s school, please?”

“Not in the middle of the school year. Sorry, honey,” she said and pulled him into a quick hug.

“But I can’t do this anymore! I won’t learn anything if Clifford keeps making my life a living hell!” he whined, freeing himself from her embrace and slumping onto the couch.

Patting his arm, she let out a small sigh. “Luke, are you sure you would want to do this? I mean, what about your friends?”

“What about them? I could still meet them after school,” he replied, although she had a point there.

“But don’t you think you’d miss them?”

“Well, they’re too busy with each other anyway,” he murmured. “It’s getting worse every day, so.”

“Honey, they’re in love, but that doesn’t mean they’re not your friends anymore.”

“I know, Mum, that’s not what I’m trying to say. I just … it can get a bit annoying, I guess? And frustrating, and – never mind, you’re my mum, we’re not even supposed to talk about that kind of stuff.”

“You can tell me everything you want, darling, I won’t judge you. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, but, like –“

“I’m hooooome,” he was interrupted by his older brother who’d just entered the living room with a big smile on his face.

Luke raised an eyebrow. “Are you okay? To be honest with you, you kind of look like Niall and Liam: disgustingly in love.”

A deep blush crept up into Ashton’s cheeks. “Um, well, I’m just being happy, that’s all. My day was fantastic, so … yeah.”

“You already said that yesterday. What happened?” their mum wanted to know.

“Nothing.” When she kept staring at him, Ashton let out a sigh. “Fine. I might have met someone I like and we might have been on a date yesterday. He’s great and –“

“ _He_?” Luke interjected, raising an eyebrow.

Ashton shrugged. “Yeah, well, you already knew that I like boys, too. And don’t even think about asking more questions, I’m not going to answer any of them! Not yet, at least. So, um, Luke, there’s a party at Harry’s house tomorrow night and I was wondering if you wanted to come, too?”

“Sure,” Luke answered with a small smile. Harry’s parties were always fun. “Can I bring my friends?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Cool. Mum, I can go, right?”

“Well, it’s a Friday night, so, yes, go ahead and have fun. Ash, I don’t want you to drive home though, so make sure you can stay overnight.”

“It’s fine, Mum, I won’t have any drinks. I promise.”

“Good. It’s nice to know that I can trust you with that, thanks for being so responsible. Now, you two must be starving. There’s some pizza left in the fridge and also some pasta with meatballs; I’m sure my two responsible boys can figure out how to share on their own?”

“Yep, that’s simple: I’ll have the pizza!” Ashton was full-on grinning now and leaning down to poke his younger brother a bit.

“I don’t even care this time, I’ll just eat whatever the hell I get. I’m so, so hungry,” Luke sighed while scrambling off the couch.

“You know,” Ashton whispered when they were standing in the kitchen a few minutes later, waiting for their food to heat up in the microwave, “you could have had a snack during detention.”

Luke looked at him with a frown. “Yeah, like our stupid headmaster would’ve allowed that.”

Now Ashton’s lips were twitching. “I was talking about … never mind.”

“What?”

“No, it’s nothing, really. Don’t forget to call your friends later, Lukey. And tell them we can pick them up around eight.”

“Okay. Thanks Ash, you’re the best brother ever.”

Ashton coughed quietly. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far …”

“But it’s true.” Luke smiled at him, wrapping his arms around him for a moment. “So … when are you going to tell me everything about that boy you have a crush on?”

“Not tonight. Um, maybe tomorrow. We’ll see.” Ashton cleared his throat again and turned towards the microwave, and Luke decided not to push it.

“Okay,” he said simply, leaning against his shoulder and closing his eyes. “Please wake me up when the food is ready, yeah? I’m so damn tired …”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it. :)
> 
> The next chapter will be uploaded in five days. If you're excited for the party, you should come back to read it. ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys. :)  
> It's finally here: The first "party chapter". Have fun. ;)

**6.**

“Thank God this week is _finally_ over,” Luke groaned while following his older brother through the front door. His two best friends were close behind him, holding hands and stealing kisses from each other from time to time, and Luke wondered how long it would take for them to disappear into the nearest dark corner to do … well, _stuff_ together. Probably not too long, since they hadn’t been capable of keeping their hands off each other the whole week.

“Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad. You survived, after all,” Liam said before going back to snogging Niall in front of _everyone_. They’d never kept their relationship a secret, but they’d never been _that_ obvious in public either.

“Would you stop doing that for a second and listen to me?” Luke grumbled, while they were stumbling towards the living room. The house was already packed with people since they’d arrived a little late, loud music was blasting through several speakers and at least half of the guests were already drunk as fuck. Luke planned on following their lead as soon as possible.

“Sorry, mate, but I’ve got my hot boyfriend right in front of me. What are you expecting me to do, ignore him?” Liam first grinned at him and then at Niall, who’d been making heart eyes at him for the whole ride here. It was absolutely ridiculous.

Luke told them so. “I don’t deserve this!” he whined. “Do you have any idea how much I had to suffer this week?”

“Well, it was kind of your own fault that you had to spend so much time with Clifford.” Liam shrugged and raised an eyebrow. “Just ignore him. And stop complaining all the time, for fuck’s sake!”

Luke looked at him, offended, and Liam rolled his eyes at him and dragged his boyfriend away. “Well, thanks a lot for your support!” Luke yelled after them, which earned him a few confused looks from the people around him.

He didn’t even care. His only goal was to get drunk as fast as possible and forget about Michael fucking Clifford. At least he wouldn’t have to see him until Monday, and maybe he’d actually take Liam’s advice then and just ignore the arsehole for the rest of his fucking li –

“Fuck!” someone shouted behind him, and only a second later Luke was hit by another body and involuntarily stumbled against the nearest wall. “Fuck,” the voice repeated, sounding a little breathless, “I’m sorry man, I didn’t – oh my god, Hemmings, is that you?!”

Luke slowly turned around, his eyes almost popping out of his head. No, no, this couldn’t be happening to him! He hadn’t done anything to deserve something this cruel!

“Oh. It’s actually you,” the other boy gasped after a short moment of silence and frowned.

Luke wanted to _scream_. “What the fuck are you doing here, Clifford?” he spat out, narrowing his eyes at him. “Who the hell invited _you_?!”

“I did,” another voice said, and then Hood’s face appeared behind Clifford’s back. His lips were curved into an almost devilish smirk and for a second or so Luke just stared at him blankly.

“Okay? And how did _you_ get here?” he asked eventually.

“Oh, I was invited by someone else.” Hood’s smirk grew even wider now. “Your brother’s a really cool guy. I’m gonna go find him, see ya!” And with that, he disappeared into another room.

“What the fuck,” Clifford muttered. “How does Cal know your brother, Hemmings?”

“I don’t know! And I don’t care!” Obviously, the latter was a total lie. Luke had absolutely no idea when Ashton could’ve met Clifford’s friend, but he did care. Actually, he was going to find out right now, he decided, while pushing past Clifford and ignoring his stupid existence for once.

Unfortunately, Clifford didn’t ignore _him_. “Hemmings, wait!” he yelled, nearly knocking over a small table in the progress of running after him.

“Fuck off!”

“No, I won’t! I want to know how my best friend knows your stupid brother!”

“He’s not stupid, you don’t even know him!” Luke hissed while spinning around and glaring at him. “Don’t you dare talk about Ash like that!”

Clifford rolled his eyes. “I really don’t care about your brother, I just don’t want Cal to hang out with him.”

“Neither do I, dumbass. Now leave me alone and get on someone else’s nerves, I’m gonna find them and make sure they –“ The words suddenly died in Luke’s throat and his eyes went wide in shock. There, in the middle of the room, only a few metres away from them, was Ashton, and he was hugging Clifford’s best friend with a bright smile plastered on his face.

“Fuck,” Clifford said, staring at them as well. “Is that your brother?”

“Yeah,” Luke answered in a high-pitched voice that he didn’t even recognise as his own.

Clifford shook his head in disbelief. “Why would they _hug each other_?”

“I don’t know, Clifford,” Luke replied, gritting his teeth. “How about you shut your fucking mouth for once and let me figure out what’s going on?”

“Don’t tell me what to do, Hemmings!”

“Just shut the fuck up!”

“No, you shut up!”

Luke was about to strangle him, but then he saw his brother releasing Hood from his arms. However, instead of taking a step back, Ashton suddenly grabbed the other boy’s face and slowly leaned closer towards him, and Luke’s breath got caught in his throat. “Hell no,” he whispered and next to him, Clifford took a sharp breath.

“No fucking way! Hemmings, why the hell are they kissing?! Did you know anything about this – because if you did, I’m going to kill you!” Clifford hissed and looked at Luke like he was actually ready to murder him.

Luke stared at him in disbelief. “Yes, Clifford, of course I knew this would happen tonight,” he finally managed to get out, being pretty sure he’d never sounded more sarcastic in his whole life. “That’s why I showed up to this _absolutely wonderful_ party, because I fucking knew you’d be here and get on my nerves again!”

“Hey Luke,” someone said behind them, just in time to prevent them from yelling at each other in front of everyone, “enjoying the party so far? – Oh my god, is that Ash over there, snogging that guy’s face off?!?”

“Hi Louis. Yep, that’s Ash,” Luke grumbled, and his brother’s two best friends started to squeal in unison.

“Do you know the other one? He’s cute!” Harry shrieked in excitement and Louis just nodded approvingly and with a huge grin on his face.

“Um, well, he’s one of my classmates,” Luke explained, glancing at Clifford who’d gone completely silent. Luke decided to take advantage of it, just because he could; Clifford wouldn’t kill him with Louis and Harry standing right next to them. “Just like this twat here, by the way.”

“Ohhh. Let me guess, that’s Michael Clifford. Right?”

Luke looked at Louis with a dumbfounded expression on his face. “How do you know?”

“ _Well_ ,” Louis said and smirked, first at him and then at Clifford, “your dear brother might have told us about him once or twice. Nice to meet you, Michael. You seem to be quite a sensitive topic in the Hemmings family …”

Luke’s face started to heat up so quickly that it might as well have exploded. “ _Louis_. Shut up.”

“I could,” Louis replied, still smirking with pleasure, and Harry burst into a fit of giggles and hid his face in his boyfriend’s neck, “but it’s sooo much more fun to continue, Lukey. Don’t you think?”

“I fucking hate you all,” Luke cursed under his breath before turning around and heading straight to the door without looking back. He wasn’t sure if he could have handled a look in Clifford’s eyes right now. Damn it, he should have stayed at home and get drunk alone, really.

Ten minutes and two beers later, after nearly bumping into Niall and Liam _twice_ \- while they were shamelessly making out in the middle of the living room - his mood had gotten even worse. He couldn’t just leave the party on his own, since Ashton had driven them here and they lived too far away to just walk home, but he didn’t want to stay either. Maybe, if he pretended to be sick, his brother would stop snogging _Clifford’s friend_ and drive him home?

However, Luke knew he’d feel guilty about it. Although he didn’t want Ashton to hook up with Hood, he wanted to see him happy. And _happy_ was an understatement for Ashton’s current state. He couldn’t just go ahead and ruin that for him, now could he?

“Hemmings, you need to help me ruin it for them.”

Luke slowly turned around, only to face a very desperate looking Michael Clifford who’d clearly had a few beers himself. He didn’t seem drunk yet, though, and neither was Luke, as much as he wanted to. This whole night was too much to handle while being sober.

“Fuck off, Clifford. I’m not talking to you,” he muttered, sipping on his third beer and awkwardly smiling at a few girls near them.

“Oh, but you are. We can’t just let this happen! We have to do something!” Clifford all but pleaded, and, okay, this was new. He had to be _really_ desperate.

Luke raised an eyebrow. “Are you actually asking me for help?”

“No!”

“You just did.” Luke had no idea why he suddenly felt so confident in Clifford’s presence, but it was definitely a good thing.

“Shut the fuck up!” And just like that, dickhead Clifford was back and looked at him with a challenging expression on his face. Luke rolled his eyes and was about to leave the room, but then he heard Clifford’s mocking voice again and froze on the spot. “So Hemmings … Interesting to know that I’m a _sensitive topic_ for you.”

Luke’s whole face was burning. Fuck, he was going to kill Louis for mentioning that to him!

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh _really_.”

“Fuck off.”

“You say that quite a lot, Hemmings.”

“So do you.”

“Well, it’s cool when I say it. When you say it, it just sounds pathetic.”

“Yeah, right, cause being you isn’t pathetic at all!” Luke suddenly yelled at him, his voice shaking with anger. He was so, so sick of that fucking twat, and he was more than willing to make that clear to him right now.

Clifford narrowed his eyes. “No, it’s not. Being me is pretty awesome, actually. Being you must suck though, you can’t even talk to someone without making a complete fool of yourself!”

“You’re such an arsehole!” Luke screamed back, completely ignoring the people around them. “Is there anyone in this world who actually likes you?! Cause I doubt it!”

“Shut up! I have friends!”

“Oh, you mean the one who’s rather snogging my brother than spending time with you right now?”

Clifford looked like he wanted to punch him for that last comment, but then there was suddenly Harry standing next to them and trying to intervene, “Guys, would you keep it down, please?”

Luke chose to ignore him. Clifford, however, didn’t. “Maybe I would if he wasn’t such an idiot!”

“Oh, now I’m the idiot? I’m not the one who’s getting on people’s nerves all the time!” Luke hissed and reached forward to push him away from him.

“Don’t touch me, Hemmings!” Clifford growled and pushed back.

Louis, who was peeking over Harry’s shoulder, snorted. “Yeah, right, like that’s not what you want,” he cackled before grabbing his boyfriend’s hand and dragging him away. “Let’s dance!” was the last thing they heard from him, and Luke didn’t even have the time to process his words, because Clifford only glared at him one last time and then disappeared.

“I hate my life,” Luke complained to nobody in particular, downing the rest of his beer.

“No you don’t,” Niall said next to him and handed him another bottle.

Luke raised an eyebrow. “Where is Liam? Did you actually leave him for more than three seconds?”

“He had to go to the bathroom, and I needed something to drink. Look, mate, I’m sorry if you feel like the third wheel or something, you know that’s not our intention. We’re just …”

Luke let out a sigh. “Madly in love, I know. It’s fine, I’m happy for you. Just don’t try to tell me any details about last weekend again, alright? I don’t need to know anything about all the positions you’ve had amazing sex in.”

Niall’s face reddened within a second. “God, Luke, I’m so sorry! I won’t mention that ever again, I promise!”

“Thanks.” Luke almost grinned at him, but then Liam appeared and pulled Niall into a hug, and Luke went back to hating his life. Not all of it, maybe, but right now he was really frustrated.

He decided to go outside for a little while. The garden was just as packed as the house; a few people were playing table tennis, while some others took advantage of the fact that Harry’s parents were wealthy enough to own a swimming pool. It only took Luke five seconds to spot his brother on the other side of the pool, and _of course_ Hood was with him. They were holding hands and giggling at each other, and to be honest they looked so disgustingly adorable together that Luke wanted to puke.

Half a minute later, this wish was being replaced by the burning desire to drown Michael Clifford in the pool. And, yep, he was definitely going to do it. Right after managing to get out of it himself.

“CLIFFORD!” he yelled, as soon as his head was above the surface again, and spat out some water. “You’re dead, you hear me? DEAD!”

“And you’re wet,” Clifford gave back in response and almost toppled over from shaking with laughter. Then he turned around and escaped into the house.

Silently cursing, Luke climbed out of the water. Everyone around him was laughing or at least grinning - well, maybe except for two certain boys who’d been rushing over in a hurry and were now looking at him worried.

“Are you okay, Luke?” Ashton asked and Luke could’ve sworn that his lips were twitching. Well, thanks a lot!

“Oh, I will be. I’ll be okay _as soon as I’ve killed him_!” Luke couldn’t believe that once again, Clifford had managed to embarrass him in front of dozens of people. That bastard was going to suffer!

Now Hood’s lips were twitching, too. “Okay. Tell him I said hi and that he definitely deserves it.”

Luke stared at him blankly; Ashton, however, started to giggle and threw his arms around Hoods shoulders. “Just ask Harry if you can borrow a few clothes from him, Lukey. See ya!” And with that, they both disappeared. Luke wanted to scream.

“Thanks,” he said five minutes later, when he was standing in Harry’s bedroom and awkwardly shifting from one foot to the other. “You’ll get your stuff back as soon as possible, I promise.”

“Oh, no problem, I’ve got plenty of those plaid shirts,” Harry explained with a smile on his face. “Just make sure to lock the door when you’re done, alright? I don’t want anyone to get in here and … well, make a mess. Um, I’ll be downstairs then, see you later.”

“Thanks,” Luke repeated himself while already pulling his soaking wet shirt over his head. He’d probably left a wet trace behind him on his way upstairs, but couldn’t bring himself to care. It wasn’t his fault, after all!

When he left the room a few minutes later, he nearly bumped into someone who was casually leaning against the wall. He was about to open his mouth and apologise to whoever he’d almost knocked over in his hurry –

“ _Hemmings_.”

Luke’s mouth fell open and his eyes widened comically. He couldn’t believe that Clifford actually had the nerve to show up here after what he’d done to him. And as soon as he saw him standing there with his pierced eyebrow raised and his stupid lips curved into a challenging smirk, Luke felt a hot wave of anger washing over him.

“Fuck you, Clifford, FUCK YOU!” And then he was leaping forward, shoving Clifford up against the wall and trying to punch him. Hard.

For some reason, Clifford’s smirk grew even wider and more devilish, and then he pushed back even harder. “Who’s pathetic now, Hemmings?” he teased, and it made Luke absolutely furious.

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” He wanted to see him suffer, more than ever before, and the amount of anger boiling up inside him probably should’ve scared him, but it didn’t.

“Make –“ Clifford’s eyes widened in realisation, when that one word slipped past his lips, and then he quickly shut his mouth to stop himself from letting more words out.

Luke didn’t even notice, being too busy stumbling forward and clenching his fist, ready to throw it right into Clifford’s stupid face. But then, in the exact same moment, Clifford stumbled forward, too, and only half a second later their chests collided.

So did their lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well ... what do you think? ;D


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW you guys are the best, I got so many kudos and comments after the last chapter, fuck I'm so happy! :)))
> 
> Okay, so this one is definitely one of my favourite chapters. Seriously, I love it for so many reasons. Enjoy! ;)

**7.**

_“Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” He wanted to see him suffer, more than ever before, and the amount of anger boiling up inside him probably should’ve scared him, but it didn’t._

_“Make –“ Clifford’s eyes widened in realisation, when that one word slipped past his lips, and then he quickly shut his mouth to stop himself from letting more words out._

_Luke didn’t even notice, being too busy stumbling forward and clenching his fist, ready to throw it right into Clifford’s stupid face. But then, in the exact same moment, Clifford stumbled forward, too, and only half a second later their chests collided._

_So did their lips._

 

Luke’s eyes widened in shock. His first instinct was to jump back, run for his life and never bring up that accidental kiss ever again, and it was safe to say that Clifford would totally agree with that.

One heartbeat later, Luke was being shoved against the wall and Clifford’s lips were back on his own. Making a small noise in the back of his throat, Luke was about to grab his shoulders and push him away from him, but then he realised that this felt actually _fucking good_ and went completely still for a split second. Although their bodies were already pressed together tightly, Clifford leaned in even closer now, tangling his hands in Luke’s hair and moving his lips frantically against Luke’s closed mouth.

Luke’s eyes fluttered shut. He felt a tingling sensation running through his entire body, and his brain might as well have not existed anymore. The only thing he knew at this point was that Clifford’s lips felt way too good on his own to let go, and that his hands wanted to bury themselves in Clifford’s hair so, so badly.

He allowed them to do so without hesitation, causing Clifford to let out a small moan. Then he realised that Clifford was running his tongue over his bottom lip, and a tiny sound of pleasure escaped his own throat.

“Fuck,” he groaned into Clifford’s mouth and tugged slightly at his hair, eliciting another moan from him. “Fuck, Clifford …”

Clifford didn’t seem to approve of him wasting their time talking, because he was practically forcing his tongue into Luke’s mouth now, and Luke was so, so okay with that. When their tongues met for the first time – a short contact only, before they both pulled away again - he made a small whimper; it was ridiculous, really, how fast he all but melted into Clifford’s touch, but Clifford didn’t seem to mind at all.

In fact, he seemed quite happy about it, judging from the way he let out a small breathless chuckle before going back to attacking Luke’s mouth so fiercely that Luke’s grip on his hair tightened immediately. And once again, this caused Clifford to moan loudly, so Luke figured he might as well keep doing it.

This felt good. So fucking good. Actually, Luke couldn’t remember a single moment in his life where he’d felt that good. In a less tipsy state he’d probably processed by now that this was Michael fucking Clifford who he was snogging – aka wrong, wrong, _fucking wrong_!! – but even then he couldn’t have cared less. His heart had never beaten this fast, his skin never burned this hot, his mind never gone this fuzzy … just by simply kissing someone.

But at some point, kissing just didn’t seem to be enough anymore, even as heated as it was, and Clifford separated his lips from Luke’s and started kissing along his jaw, down his throat and finally along his exposed collarbones. Luke hadn’t even noticed when exactly the upper half of his borrowed plaid shirt had become unbuttoned, but he definitely wasn’t going to complain.

“God,” he panted and squeezed his eyes shut after staring at Clifford for a few seconds. Then he tugged at his hair again and Clifford moaned against his skin, sending vibrations through Luke’s entire body and making him gasp again, and before Luke even knew what he was doing, he started grinding against the other boy.

“Fuck,” Clifford cursed in a raspy voice, frantically grinding back without hesitation.

And just like that, Luke was getting half-hard within a split second, and that’s what finally snapped him out of his daze. His eyes widened when he realised what the hell they were doing here, and it only took his brain a few seconds to tell the rest of his body what to do.

“No, no, shit …” He grabbed Clifford’s arms and pushed him away, and before Clifford even had a chance to react, Luke was already sprinting down the corridor and stumbling down the stairs. He spotted Ashton standing only two or three metres away from him, or rather leaning against a wall, and of fucking course he was busy snogging Hood’s face off and grinding slightly against him. Great, now what? He couldn’t just walk up to him and beg him to drive him home, could he?

 _“Listen, Ash, I’ve been making out with Clifford because clearly I’m drunk and dumb and sexually frustrated, so you should probably drive me home right now.”_ Yeah, not gonna happen. Besides, he wasn’t even that drunk, just a little tipsy. He definitely couldn’t blame it all on the alcohol and Ashton would _know_. So, telling him what had happened was absolutely no option – but neither was staying here and risking to run into Clifford again. Fuck.

His thoughts were interrupted, when all of a sudden he heard a slurred voice behind him, “Luuuke, my friend! It’s so good to see you, how are you?”

“God, Liam,” Luke sighed, while turning around and facing his drunkenly grinning friend. “Where’s Niall? He’s supposed to keep an eye on you, for fuck’s sake!”

Liam shrugged and threw an arm around his shoulders, humming happily. “Don’t know. Come on, I want another beer!”

“Oh no, definitely not. You’ve obviously had enough drinks tonight,” Luke protested immediately.

“Only three beers.”

“Yeah, and you know that you can’t have more, you lightweight.”

Liam looked at him with a disgustingly adorable pout and Luke was about to say more, but just then Niall appeared out of nowhere and pulled his boyfriend into a warm hug. “Hey Liam. Please don’t tell me you’ve had more than that one beer. Shit, I’m so sorry, it’s just, I had to pee really badly and then two guys had a fight in front of the bathroom and I tried to intervene and –“

“Stop rambling, Nialler. Let’s get out of here, okay? We can call a cab and split the fee,” Luke suggested while dragging both of them towards the front door.

Liam shook his head vehemently, but Niall agreed surprisingly fast. “Yeah, okay. Ash probably wants to stay longer, right? I saw him snogging some bloke earlier.”

“Yeah. We all know that bloke, it’s Calum Hood. Can you believe that _my brother_ is hooking up with one of our classmates?” Luke grumbled, trying not to think about the fact who he himself had snogged only a few minutes ago.

“Calum and your brother? That’s kind of hot, actually,” Niall chuckled, only earning a groan in response.

“Luuuuke,” Liam suddenly started to whine and nearly tripped over his own feet in an attempt to stumble over the door step. “Why does he think other guys are hot?”

“Seriously, how did he get that drunk from only three beers?” Luke complained, pulling his phone out of his pocket and searching for the number of the nearest taxi company.

Niall let out a small giggle. “It’s cute though. Don’t worry, Liam, you’re still the hottest guy on this planet. I love you, now stop sulking, yeah?”

“You two are the worst,” Luke murmured before calling a cab and leading his friends through the front yard.

Not even half an hour later, he was the first one to get out of the car, and he was really grateful for it. He was pretty sure that he couldn’t have listened to Liam’s drunken babbling any longer, at least not without choking him to death. Plus, he really needed to be alone after what had happened back at the party. Luckily, Niall was so busy cuddling with his boyfriend that he didn’t even notice the slight desperation in Luke’s eyes.

During the ride, he’d texted Ashton to let him know that he’d already headed home, and so far he hadn’t gotten a response. Luke really didn’t want to think about the most likely reason for it. Who his brother decided to be with, was none of his business, after all.

“Luke,” his mum said, when she saw him coming through the front door. “Why are you home so early? Where is Ash?”

“Um, he’s still at the party. I just, I was getting tired, and, um, called a cab. It’s fine, Niall and Liam wanted to go home, too,” he replied quickly, giving her a reassuring smile and heading for his room.

“Hold on. Is that a bruise on your collarbone?” she asked incredulously, and Luke felt a hot blush creeping up his neck. Damn Michael Clifford and his impressive sucking abilities … oh God, now his thoughts were definitely going in the wrong direction, and it didn’t help him to stay calm _at all_.

“Oh, um, yeah … that probably happened when I didn’t see that doorframe,” he lied, trying to sound as casual as possible, and failing miserably.

She kept staring at him, making him feel even more uncomfortable. “Honey, that doesn’t look like that kind of bruise. Besides, these aren’t your clothes,” she pointed out in a way too calm voice.

That’s when he panicked. “I fell into the pool, okay? Harry gave me some of his clothes. And I’m really tired, I’m going to bed!” he practically shouted before turning around and rushing into his room.

This whole situation was so utterly devastating and he had no idea how to handle it. Hell, he didn’t even know why he and Clifford had made out in the first place, and why it had felt so fucking good. Sure, they’d both had a few drinks, but that was no excuse for snogging someone they absolutely didn’t like, not even the slightest. And why would kissing a person he hated feel so … so fucking fantastic?!

“Fuck, Clifford! You started it, you fucking idiot!” Luke mumbled while pacing around in his room. God, he hated him for doing that to him. What was he supposed to do at school from now on? What if Clifford had only done it to embarrass him in some way, fuck, what if he was going to tell anyone?! At least that was one of the only logical explanations why he’d done it at all; the other one would be that he’d been really drunk, which Luke desperately hoped for to be the case.

On Monday morning, when his mother physically had to pull him out of bed, he wanted nothing more than to beg her to let him stay home for the rest of his life. How about home schooling or online courses or simply going to Ashton’s school instead? Or how about dropping out of school completely and hiding somewhere in Europe or America, where nobody would ever find him? All this seemed a lot more tempting than going to school and having to face Clifford again, but how was he supposed to explain that to his mum?

Ashton, apparently being madly in love and all, didn’t even seem to notice that his little brother was going through hell right now. He was humming love songs in the bathroom and at the breakfast table, and he was still doing it when he left the house and got into his car.

Luke felt like he was about to vomit any second. When he arrived at school, he almost turned around to escape his cruel fate.

“Hey mate, how was your weekend?” Niall asked, suddenly appearing next to him and looking at him expectantly, while munching on what was probably his third sandwich of the day.

Luke desperately tried to calm down. It didn’t work at all.

“Dude, are you okay? You look really pale, are you getting sick?”

“I’m fine,” Luke breathed, clutching his friend’s arm without even realising. Niall raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything other than, “Can I have my arm back, please? It kind of hurts.”

Luke nodded and let go. His heart was beating too fast and he started feeling dizzy, just like on Friday night when he’d been pressed up against a wall, having the best snog of his life. Only this time it didn’t feel fantastic at all.

And then he saw Calum Hood, out of all people.

“Um, hi guys,” he said when they were approaching him, and blushed slightly.

While Niall wasn’t doing a very good job at hiding a grin, Luke tried his best not to panic. “Hi,” he croaked.

The dark-haired bit his bottom lip. “Um, Hemmings … I figured we should probably talk. Do you have a second?”

“Sure he does,” Niall giggled not subtly at all and disappeared with a wave of his hand.

Luke stared at Hood with wide eyes. He shouldn’t have eaten that toast for breakfast, it felt like coming back any minute. Had Clifford told his best friend what had happened between them? Or what was this about? It took Luke a moment to remember that, oh, right, there was this thing going on between his brother and the boy in front of him.

“So, Hemmings … okay, this feels really weird, I mean, since I’m now dating your brother …” Hood audibly cleared his throat. “I’m just going to call you Luke, alright? I mean, that’s your name, obviously, but … um, yeah, you should call me Calum, what do you think?”

“Oh.” Luke’s eyes widened even further. “Okay. Sure. As long as you don’t want me to call your stupid friend Mi-“

“Hi Cal.”

The words died in Luke’s throat when he heard Clifford’s voice behind him. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Bye,” he said to Calum and ran off, almost bumping into several other students on his way to the entrance of the school building.

Later, when he was sitting in his classroom, only half listening to his teacher’s words and Liam and Niall’s quiet chattering, he tried not to stare at the back of Clifford’s head. And once again, he failed miserably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So ... did you like it? ;)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are amazing! Reading all your comments makes me so happy, thank you so much! <3
> 
> I decided to write another "party chapter", only this time it's from Calum's point of view. Enjoy! :)

**8.**

“This party looks awesome! Seriously, Cal, who invited you?”

Calum tried to suppress a grin. It was Friday night, they hadn’t even been here for a minute and his best friend was already bursting with excitement. “I’m not telling you, Mikey.”

Michael pouted. “Why not? I’m your friend, you’re supposed to – fuck!” he cursed, when all of a sudden two drunkenly giggling girls stumbled against him and caused him to bump into some guy. It didn’t even take him a second to apologise to him, “I’m sorry man, I didn’t –“ And then he stopped mid-sentence and stared at the guy with wide eyes. “Oh my God, Hemmings, is that you?”

Calum bit his lips to prevent them from splitting into a wide grin. Oh, this was going to be _good_.

Luke turned around – it seemed weird for Calum to think of him as _Hemmings_ , now that he knew his brother – and Michael gasped so loudly that a small laugh escaped Calum’s mouth. “Oh. It’s actually you!”

Luke looked like he wanted to commit a murder. “What the fuck are you doing here, Clifford? Who the hell invited _you_?!”

That was when Calum decided to intervene. “I did.” He just couldn’t stop himself from smirking any longer, this whole situation was absolutely hilarious.

“Okay? And how did you get here?” Luke asked after a short moment of silence, looking rather confused.

“Oh, I was invited by someone else. Your brother’s a really cool guy. I’m gonna go find him, see ya!” Calum chirped before turning around and walking away.

It didn’t take him long to find Ashton, although the entire house was packed with people. Once again, Calum was stunned by how handsome he was, wearing ripped black jeans and a white t-shirt and moving his hips a little to the music that filled the room. He didn’t notice him at first, though, probably due to the fact that he was talking to a pretty tall girl with soft blonde curls.

Calum decided to get rid of her immediately.

“Um, hi,” he said, lightly tapping him on the shoulder.

Ashton turned around and within a split second his whole face lit up. “You came!” he blurted out, lunging at him and pulling him into a wonderful hug.

Calum buried his face in Ashton’s hair that wasn’t being held up by a headband today, to fully take in his smell. He really didn’t want to let go anytime soon, and Ashton didn’t seem to plan on doing so either.

“Ash? Hey, are we still talking or what?” Calum heard a female voice next to them, but Ashton didn’t even react to it, he only hugged him tighter. Which was totally okay with Calum, just to be clear.

“I know this might sound crazy, considering I only saw you yesterday in the music shop … but I’ve missed you.”

Calum held his breath for a second. He couldn’t believe what he’d just heard, and for some reason his stupid heart started to beat a lot faster than before. “Missed you, too,” he whispered back, his voice being almost inaudible, but he was sure that Ashton had heard him anyway.

“You did?” Calum was almost positive that he _heard_ Ashton smile.

“Yeah. A lot,” he confessed, snuggling even closer.

“I really like you, Cal.” Ashton’s voice sounded so soft and honest and it made Calum want to keep him forever.

“I like you, too.” As soon as Calum had finished his confession, he was being released from Ashton’s arms, only to stare into his hazel brown eyes a second later.

He saw a small smile tugging at Ashton’s lips. “Good,” the older boy said quietly before putting his hands on his blushing cheeks and slowly leaning closer towards him. Calum held his breath again, his eyes fluttered shut and only a moment later he felt a pair of warm, gentle lips on his own.

And, wow, if that wasn’t the best kiss he’d ever shared with anyone. Not that he’d kissed that many people before, but he was quite sure that so far, nobody had ever kissed him as gently as Ashton did.

Around ten, Calum knew that he wouldn’t change his mind anytime soon. They’d been pretty much doing nothing else than snogging in that past two hours, except for holding hands and giggling at each other like silly school girls. He’d seen Michael a bit earlier, dancing and making out with some girl from Ashton’s school, and he’d also met Louis and Harry, Ashton’s two best friend, who couldn’t seem to stop smirking at him.

And before he knew it, he was leaning against a wall again, one hand buried in Ashton’s curls and the other one placed on his arse, snogging heatedly and grinding against him like his life depended on it. He was half-hard already and moaning loudly into Ashton’s hot wet mouth, when suddenly some idiot bumped into them and sent them both to the floor.

“Fuck,” Calum groaned, not being able to see much in the only dimly lit room at first.

Ashton let out a giggle and pressed a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth before getting up and dragging him to his feet. Then he raised an eyebrow, “Isn’t that your friend, Cal?”

Calum couldn’t believe his eyes. “Mikey, what the hell are you doing?” He reached forward to grab Michael’s arm and prevent him from drunkenly bumping into other people as well, and Ashton quickly helped him by reaching for Michael’s other arm.

Michael looked at them with glassy eyes and trembling lips, and suddenly he started to whine, “Where is heee?”

Calum shook his head in confusion. “Who?”

“Where. Is. He,” Michael repeated, suddenly burying himself in Calum’s arms and pressing his face into his neck. “’m tired. Can’t find him,” he mumbled with a heavy sigh.

Calum knitted his eyebrows together. “What the hell are you talking about, Mikey? God, and how many drinks did you have? – I’ve never seen him _that_ drunk,” he explained to Ashton, cursing himself for bringing his friend to this party instead of going alone.

“We should probably get him home,” Ashton said after a short moment of silence, looking very, _very_ hesitating.

“Yeah,” Calum grumbled. “Could you call a cab? I’d do it myself, but if I let go of him now, he’ll probably pass out right here on the floor.”

“Um, I don’t think it’s a good idea to let him leave on his own.”

“No, you’re right, I have to go with him.” Calum tried to smile but it didn’t reach his eyes. He didn’t want to go home, just because his best friend had decided to be an idiot and get too pissed to stand on his own feet.

“You won’t need a cab then, I’ll drive you home,” Ashton suggested, and Calum was about to protest when suddenly an angry voice behind them said, “Oh, there he is! Fucking idiot!”

Calum turned around, nearly dropping Michael to the ground in the process. When he saw the girl from earlier, who’d danced and made out with Michael about an hour ago, he raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”

Ashton let out a sigh. “Yeah, what’s your problem? And what are you doing here anyway, I’m sure you haven’t been invited.”

“Oh, I don’t need an invitation. And this guy,” she pointed at Michael, who’d practically passed out already in Calum’s arms, “just _left_ me on the dance floor after ruining my shoes! Those were expensive!”

“Yeah,” Ashton said with twitching lips, “you probably should’ve noticed that he was too drunk to hold a drink without spilling it.”

“Are you making fun of me?”

“Not at all,” Ashton grinned, already dragging Calum and Michael away from her. “He wasn’t interested in you, anyway!” he shouted over his shoulder and Calum briefly wondered why the sight of a mean Ashton actually started to arouse him. Well, fuck.

“Where we going?” Michael’s slurred voice was the only sign of him being at least a bit conscious right now.

“Home,” Ashton replied and slightly patted his arm before opening the front door and leading them outside. “Luke is going to kill me,” he murmured when they’d reached his car.

Calum sent him a comforting smile. “No, he’s not. I won’t tell him and Michael … well, he’s probably the last person who’d talk to him.”

“Yeah, I know, you’re right. Come on, let’s go.”

“Thanks for doing this, Ash.” Calum quickly leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. “I’ll get in the back with him and make sure he won’t vomit on your seats.”

“Yeah, okay. Hold on, I have a plastic bag in the glove box, just in case.”

“That’s pretty clever. – Ash, wait. How’s your brother supposed to get home?”

Ashton shrugged and handed him said plastic bag. “He sent me a text, he and his friends got a cab home over an hour ago. Apparently they didn’t enjoy the party, or maybe they were just tired, or Liam was getting drunk too fast again. That’s happened before.”

“Oh.” Calum threw a glance at Michael who was already asleep in the backseat. “Ash, do you think he was talking about Luke earlier? Remember, he asked _Where is he_. Twice!”

“Why would he want to know about Luke?” Ashton asked with a little frown; however, he couldn’t stop himself from grinning a bit at the same time. Maybe their plan to bring both of them to the party hadn’t been so bad, after all.

Calum shared his opinion on that. “Well, he’s drunk. People who are drunk tell the truth. I mean, it sounds really crazy, but maybe he actually missed him? I have no idea who else he could’ve been talking about; he probably didn’t even know anyone at that party, just like me.”

“Yeah, most of the people were from my school. Maybe you’re right,” Ashton agreed while starting the engine of his car. “Where does he live?” he added. “Can you direct me to his house?”

“Sure, he lives in my neighbourhood, shouldn’t be more than a 20 minute drive. I hope he just sleeps through it.”

Michael did him that favour. In fact, when Ashton finally parked in front of his parents’ house, they had to shake him for a good five minutes before he woke up again, and then they had to drag him to the front door to make sure he wouldn’t pass out in the front yard. Before they could even search for his keys in his pockets, the door was being opened and Michael’s mum looked at them with a worried expression on her face, “Oh dear! Boys, what happened?”

“Um,” Calum replied sheepishly, totally forgetting the fact that this wasn’t his fault at all. “He got drunk, I guess. I’m sorry, I should’ve –“

“Oh, no, that’s not your fault,” she interrupted him without hesitation and gave him a comforting smile. “He’s old enough to look out for himself. You’re his friend, not his babysitter. He’s not your neighbours’ eight-year-old daughter, Calum, so don’t apologise to me.”

“Yeah, but as a friend I should have …”

“Calum, stop, please,” Mrs Clifford said, and Ashton nodded in agreement. “I’m sure it was his own decision to drink too much.”

Michael blinked in confusion. “H-hi Mum. What you doin ere?”

That slurred question caused her to raise an eyebrow. “God, he’s really drunk. Thanks for getting him home safely, boys.”

“That’s the least we could do,” Calum answered while shoving his friend towards his mum. “Um, he hasn’t puked yet, so he’s probably going to do that soon.”

“Noo,” Michael whined, tripping over his own feet and promptly stumbling against the doorframe. “Don’t wanna puke.”

His mother rolled her eyes at him. “Alright, time for bed. Go upstairs, I’ll get you a bucket.”

“He won’t make it to his room,” Calum sighed. “You should go with him, just in case. Um, we’ll be leaving now. Goodnight, Karen.” He grabbed Ashton’s hand and pulled him back to the car, and as soon as they’d gotten there, Ashton started to giggle uncontrollably. “What?” Calum asked a little frustrated. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.” Ashton tried to make a straight face but didn’t succeed. “It’s just … I wonder if he’s going to remember any of this. We should have asked him about that guy he was talking about. And video taped it.”

Calum let out a little laugh. “Yeah. I’m just glad that he’s home now, to be honest.”

Ashton winked at him. “Me too. Do you want to go back to the party?” he asked quietly, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him close to his chest.

“Not necessarily,” Calum whispered back, melting into his embrace.

“Yeah, me neither. Come on, I’m thinking of something better.”

“Oh, and what would that be? A romantic walk on the beach?” Calum joked and Ashton blushed slightly.

“Actually, yes, that’s what I had in mind first. But it’ll probably take too long to get there and back, so I thought we could do that some other time. For tonight, how about a romantic walk in the nearest park instead?”

“I’d love to. There’s a park just down the street, Lily loves to play there. We can walk, if you don’t mind, it’ll only take a few minutes.”

“Sounds perfect,” Ashton smiled, releasing him from his arms and taking his hand into his own instead. “Let’s go.”

Two hours later, when Calum sneaked through the back door of his parents’ house, his lips curved into a dopey smile and his neck plastered with love bites the size of Sydney, he thought that meeting Ashton had been the best thing to ever happen to him and that he definitely wanted to keep him. Forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys liked it! :)


	9. Chapter 9

**9.**

“But I don’t want to go to bed yet!”

“I’m sorry, Lily, you have to.”

“Nooo. Please, Cal, I want to stay here with you! It’s been so much fun today, this is the best Saturday ever!”

“I know. We had a great day together. And now you need to get some sleep, so go and brush your teeth. I’ll be upstairs in five minutes.”

Lily pouted. “Can Ash come, too?”

“Sure,” Ashton said with a wide grin before Calum had even opened his mouth to give her an answer. “We’ll both come to say goodnight, I promise.”

“Okay!” Her pout was gone, immediately being replaced with a happy smile, and within a few seconds she disappeared through the door.

“She loves you,” Calum stated, causing Ashton to let out a soft giggle and pull him into his arms.

“She’s a sweetheart. I really enjoyed our first drumming lesson today. Well, and everything else, of course. I understand that she didn’t want to go to that wedding with her parents, I’m sure she had way more fun spending the day with us. It was amazing, I loved it.”

“Yeah? Really?” Calum mumbled before snuggling a little closer.

“Really,” Ashton whispered with a bright smile on his face, leaning slightly towards him and bringing up his hands to place them on his cheeks.

Calum bit his lips. “Ash … we probably shouldn’t …”

“I haven’t kissed you all day,” Ashton pointed out with a pout. “Do you have any idea how hard that was for me? I wanted to kiss you, like, the whole time. For _hours_.”

Calum couldn’t stop himself from letting out a quiet laugh. “It wasn’t as hard for you as it was for me.”

“Oh, so you wanted to kiss me, too?” Within half a second, Ashton’s pout grew into a smirk. “Come on then, we don’t have to wait any longer.”

“But –“

“Cal. I understand that you don’t want to do it around Lily, but she’s upstairs right now and won’t see anything. Just one kiss. Please?”

“Do I have to remind you that you tried to kiss me two hours ago, when we were playing with her in the park and you thought she couldn’t see us behind that tree?”

“Well,” Ashton said and winked at him, “it’s not my fault that you’re so fucking kissable.”

Calum blushed furiously. “Shut up.”

Ashton winked again. “Make me.”

“Yeah, Cal, make him,” they suddenly heard a giggling voice from the door and Calum almost fell off the couch.

“Lily! I told you to go upstairs!”

The eight-year-old giggled even louder now. “I know, but listening to you dorks was way more fun than brushing my teeth. Are you going to kiss him now or what?”

For some reason, Calum felt a little embarrassed. Ashton on the other hand was suddenly grinning like a fool, “Hey, young lady. If you go upstairs now, Cal will sing you a lullaby.”

“No I won’t,” Calum protested without hesitation.

“A lullaby? Really, Ash? How old do you think I am, five?” Lily said at the exact same time.

“Well, it would have to be a punk rock lullaby, of course,” Ashton replied with such a serious expression on his face that Calum couldn’t stop himself from barking out a laugh.

“Punk rock sounds better,” Lily had to admit.

“I’m not going to do it,” Calum kept refusing. “It was Ash’s idea, so he can do it himself.” And since Lily still wasn’t moving, he rose from the couch and walked towards her. “Come on, let’s go.”

Ten minutes later he’d actually managed to make her brush her teeth and put her to bed, and now he was leaning against her bright red closet and trying not to die of laughter. Ashton was standing in the middle of the room, or rather jumping wildly up and down, pretending to be a rock star with an invisible guitar and singing loudly, and Lily seemed to absolutely love it.

“Cal! Don’t be boring!” she suddenly shouted and before he knew it, she was scrambling out of her bed and bouncing towards him. “Come on, dance!” she demanded, reaching for his hands and resolutely pulling him with her.

Calum was too busy laughing to protest, so they waltzed through the room for a while, and at some point Lily just grabbed Ashton’s hands and dragged him with them. Ashton’s whole face lit up like a Christmas tree and he put his right hand on Calum’s shoulder, while he was holding Lily’s small hand in his left one.

“That’s so nice,” Lily smiled up to both of them.

“Yeah,” Calum agreed somewhat breathless, not so much because they were dancing around but because he couldn’t stop staring into Ashton’s sparkling eyes.

God, he wanted to kiss him so, so badly. But he couldn’t, not right in front of Lily, and it wasn’t even because he and Ashton both were boys. He wouldn’t have kissed a girl either; this was his job, after all, no matter how much he enjoyed spending time with Lily.

He was absolutely positive that he hadn’t spoken his thoughts out loud, but once again Lily seemed to read his mind just perfectly. “Do you want me to look in another direction?” she asked all of a sudden, raising an eyebrow at him and not even trying to suppress a smirk.

Ashton let out a giggle and Calum only wanted to kiss him even more. “Time for bed, Lily,” he said hoarsely, totally ignoring the fact that Ashton kept giggling next to him.

“Fiiine,” she gave in and climbed back into her bed. “You can go downstairs now, I’m tired anyway.”

“Thanks,” Ashton chuckled, high-fiving her, and she actually winked at him and not so subtly pointed at Calum then.

Again, Calum ignored that. “Are you sure?” he asked hesitantly. “I mean, I could stay for a while, just until you fall asleep …”

“Nope. I’m fine. Now go.”

Ashton was still giggling. “Okay. Come on, Cal, you heard her.”

“Alright,” Calum nodded. “We’ll be in the living room, just in case you need anything. Goodnight, sweetheart.”

“Goodnight,” Lily replied, faking a yawn and winking again.

“I love her, she’s so adorable,” Ashton announced when they were back in the living room, and pulled Calum into a tight hug. “Now come here and kiss me.”

Calum didn’t simply kiss him, he practically _attacked_ his mouth with his own. It just had been so long since last night and they were both so desperate for each other. Ashton was the first one to let out a little moan, moving his lips frantically against Calum’s mouth and already stumbling towards the couch.

“Ash,” Calum panted, “wait, wait, we can’t –“

“I _need_ you,” Ashton whined before pushing him onto the sofa and not even hesitating to straddle his lap. “Please, Cal.”

“I’m still at work,” Calum protested. His eyes were fluttering shut as soon as he felt Ashton’s lips on his neck that was still covered in the love bites Ashton had left there the night before. “We can’t make out in the middle of – oh God, Ash, stop, please!”

“Why?” Ashton grinned, mouthing at one of the hickeys.

“Because there’s someone at the front door, don’t you hear it?!”

“Hi boys,” Lily’s mum greeted them half a minute later after entering the living room and sending them both a warm smile. “Is everything alright?”

“What? Yes, of course, everything’s fine. You, um, you’re home,” Calum rambled, stating the obvious. Although he had managed to shove Ashton off his lap like ten seconds ago, he still felt nervous. He wasn’t sure how Lily’s parents thought about boys dating boys, and, well, he wasn’t really _dating_ Ashton, or at least they hadn’t talked about it yet, but –

“Oh, yes, we left a bit earlier than we planned to. The wedding party was getting really boring and the food was so awful,” she explained with a shrug and her husband who’d just come into the room as well nodded in agreement.

“Oh. Okay.” Calum cleared his throat. “Um, I guess we’ll just leave then?”

“Sure. Thanks boys, Lily really likes you. She wouldn’t stop telling me how much she enjoys spending time with the two of you. And she was so excited for her first drumming lesson today, how did it go?”

“Oh, your daughter was great. She’s going to be an amazing drummer,” Ashton assured her with an almost proud smile on his face.

“Ash,” Calum whispered a few minutes later, when they were approaching Ashton’s car which he had parked around the corner, “you know who else is amazing?”

Ashton’s lips curved into a smile again. “Who?”

“You,” Calum replied, shoving him up against the car without hesitation and pressing his own body close against him.

A somewhat breathless chuckle escaped Ashton’s throat. “No, Cal, you are amazing. I really, really like you …”

“I like you, too. A lot,” Calum mumbled against the bare skin above his collarbones, earning a slight shudder from him. “Can you unlock the car now? Please?”

Less than a minute later they were in the backseat, snogging and grinding against each other like their lives depended on it, and Calum just hoped that none of his neighbours was going for a walk tonight. He didn’t want anyone to tell his parents that they’d seen him making out with another boy in the back of a car out of all places.

He probably would have been embarrassed by how fast he was getting hard, but he could feel that Ashton was getting hard, too, so he figured it was okay. Ashton’s hands were on his back and Calum didn’t even hesitate to tangle his own hands into Ashton’s curls, pulling at them fiercely and eliciting several moans from him.

“Fuck, Cal,” Ashton gasped, biting down on Calum’s lips. “God, I want … I need …”

“Yeah,” Calum panted back and started grinding down even harder, pressing himself as deep into Ashton’s lap as possible. “Me too. Fuck, Ash, I … I’ve never … I don’t know what to …”

These words caused Ashton to freeze on the spot. “Oh my God, Cal, I’m so sorry! Fuck, I shouldn’t have –“

“Ash,” Calum interrupted him, letting out a breathless little laugh and nuzzling his face into Ashton’s hair. “You don’t have to apologise. Just because I’m so fucking clueless doesn’t mean that I want you to stop now. I _like_ you, okay? If I want you to stop, I’ll say so, I promise.”

“Oh.” Ashton didn’t look fully convinced. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely,” Calum whispered while pulling back a little, just far enough to press a quick kiss to his lips. “Now can we please continue?”

“Okay,” Ashton whispered back and wrapped his arms even tighter around him. “I mean, it’s not very romantic, making out in the back of my shitty car, but –“

“I really don’t care, as long as you keep touching me.”

“I haven’t even started yet.”

“Let’s change that then,” Calum murmured. He was about to release one of his hands from Ashton’s hair to slip it under Ashton’s shirt, but in this very second there was a knock at the window and Calum’s heart seemed to skip a few beats.

“Fuck,” he cursed and scrambled off Ashton’s lap, just in time, because suddenly the door swung open.

“What the hell is going on here? This is a decent neighbourhood!”

Calum couldn’t believe this was happening to him. Of fucking course it had to be the most awful neighbour of the century!

“I don’t think this is any of your business,” Ashton stated firmly, taking Calum’s hand into his own and squeezing it gently.

“Exactly,” Calum said, throwing an angry look at his neighbour.

The grey-haired man raised an eyebrow at him. “Do your parents know about this? I doubt it,” he replied before turning around and walking away.

“Fuck,” Calum groaned, “he’s going to tell my parents. I don’t want them to find out like this.”

“Why would he do that?”

“He’s an arsehole. And he complains about everything and everyone in this neighbourhood. Half of the stuff he tells my parents about me isn’t even true,” Calum explained with a pained expression on his face. “Now what am I going to do?”

“Well, that’s easy.” Ashton leaned slightly forward and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. “Be the first one to tell them about your boyfriend.”

As soon as he’d said the words out loud, Calum’s eyes went wide. “My … boyfriend?” he stuttered out, staring at him in disbelief.

Ashton bit his lips. “Yeah. If you want me to be your boyfriend, I mean. I, um, would like that. A lot. So … will you be my boyfriend? You don’t have to, obviously, I just –“

“Stop talking,” Calum mumbled against his lips. “Of course I want to be your boyfriend.”

“Really?” Ashton’s whole face lit up like a Christmas tree and he hugged him even tighter. “That’s awesome. I like you so, so much. God, I could kiss you for _hours_ now, but I guess you have to get home before your stupid neighbour tells your parents about us.”

“Mhmm. You can kiss me tomorrow though, as long as you want. We’re having a barbecue, I’ll ask my parents if you can come. If you want to, I mean.”

Ashton nodded. “Yeah, sounds good. Come here, one last kiss. Shit, I miss you already.”

“Miss you, too.”

“I miss you more.”

“Nope, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Stop it,” Calum giggled, leaning in for one last deep kiss.

“Hey,” he said ten minutes later, peeking into the living room where his parents were sitting on the sofa. “I’m home, Lily’s parents came back earlier. Can I, um, talk to you for a second?”

“Sure,” his mum smiled at him.

“Um, well, we’re still having the barbecue tomorrow, right? So, I was wondering if I could invite someone over?”

“Who? Michael? He called three times today to complain about his very best friend not answering his calls.”

Calum rolled his eyes. “I sent him a text hours ago! I told him that I was busy! And no, I’m not talking about Michael, actually I wanted to, uh, invite … my, um, my boyfriend. If that’s okay.”

His father looked up from his book, a small smile visibly tugging at his lips. “You have a boyfriend? - See, Joy, I told you he’s not only into girls,” he added, now looking at his wife almost triumphantly.

Calum blushed instantly and didn’t even know why. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“Oh honey, of course not,” his mum laughed. Then she sprinted towards him and pulled him into a hug. “I’m so happy for you, Cal. Of course you can invite him over, I can’t wait to meet him! He’s a nice guy, right?”

“The nicest guy in the world,” Calum answered with a relieved smile. “His name is Ashton. I promise you’re going to like him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be Muke in the next chapter, I promise. Loads of it.^^
> 
> I'll be updating this fic once a week from now on, on **Tuesdays or Wednesdays** (depends where you live). Please be patient. :) And follow me on [tumblr](http://throwinrocksatmukeswindow.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/Leo_111188), if you like! xx


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I'm really happy you liked the Cashton chapters! Now it's time for some Muke ... enjoy! ;)

**10.**

“Luke, what the hell is going on?” Niall asked when they were having lunch on Monday. “You’ve been acting weird all morning!”

“He’s right,” Liam agreed with his boyfriend and looked at Luke in worry. “You didn’t listen to anything the teachers were saying today! Did something bad happen? You’re not in trouble again, are you? That one week of detention was bad enough.”

“It’s nothing,” Luke mumbled, staring down at his plate. “I’m just tired.”

“Don’t lie to us,” Niall said with a frown that made him seem a little offended. “Are you mad because you saw your brother snog your worst enemy’s best friend?”

“No, I’m not mad! Ash can date whoever he wants! He already met his parents yesterday, so what, I don’t care!” Luke growled and grabbed his fork to take a bite of his food.

“Oh. Seriously, he already met his parents? Well, that sounds like it’s getting serious,” Liam stated surprised.

“I don’t care,” Luke repeated his own words. “I don’t have a problem with Calum and it’s not his fault that his friend’s a stupid twat, so yeah. Just stop bothering me with your questions, I’m really just tired.”

Liam raised an eyebrow at him. “Wow, that’s actually the first time you’ve mentioned Clifford today. Something is obviously wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, on every other day you would’ve talked about him like at least ten times by now. What did he do, Luke? He was at the party, right? Did anything happen between the two of you?”

Luke’s face heated up within a split second and his eyes widened in shock. Fuck, there was no way his friends could know about that _incident_ three days ago, but he panicked anyway. “What? What are you talking about, nothing happened at all! And would you keep it down?!” he hissed at Liam who was only raising his eyebrows again in return.

Niall cleared his throat. “So, you just made us believe even more that something happened.”

“Nothing ha-“ The rest of Luke’s words died in his throat, because in that very moment he saw Calum and Clifford on the other side of the cafeteria, and Clifford was without any doubt directly looking at him. _Fuck_. “You know what, I’m not hungry anymore,” Luke spluttered through gritted teeth, and before his friends could stop him he was jumping to his feet and running into the nearly empty hallway.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. He had managed to avoid Clifford all morning and to his surprise Clifford had done exactly the same. But it was hard to believe that they’d be able to ignore each other for the rest of their lives; they usually couldn’t even do that for five fucking minutes!

For now, however, he decided to hide in the bathroom until he had to go to his next lesson. Turned out that he wasn’t the only one with that thought, because only a few moments later the door was being opened again and Luke’s personal hell entered the room, shouting an annoyed sounding “Fuck off Cal, leave me alone!” over his shoulder before closing the door.

Luke wanted nothing more than to go ahead and drown himself in one of the toilets. Or perhaps drowning Clifford was the better choice, he didn’t even know anymore at this point.

“Oh,” Clifford said when he saw him standing there, and for the first time ever Luke thought that he looked actually _nervous_.

He clenched his fists. “What are you doing here, Clifford? Are you following me? Because you’ve been doing that a lot lately.”

“Why would I follow you?” Clifford looked even more nervous than before. In fact, he looked like he wanted to turn around and leave immediately. That was definitely a first, too.

“Oh, I really don’t know. Why were you following me around last Friday night? To get on my nerves again, just like you always do?” Luke couldn’t stop himself from spitting out the words and he could practically watch Clifford’s face getting paler by the second.

“I didn’t follow you!”

“You did! Do I have to remind you what happened next?” Fuck, why couldn’t he just shut up? Why did he have to push it? He definitely didn’t want to talk about their damn make out session, so why couldn’t he just ignore that overly sensitive topic?!

“Maybe you should,” Clifford replied after a few seconds of silence, “because obviously I was drunk as fuck and didn’t know what I was doing. You don’t think I actually _enjoyed_ that, do you? Because I definitely didn’t.”

“Oh really?” Luke raised an eyebrow at him, totally ignoring the fact that he himself had enjoyed that whole incident way more than he should have. “So that’s why you kept moaning then?”

And just like that, the old Clifford was back, staring at him with an almost angry expression on his face. “I did not enjoy it! And I did not moan, that’s bullshit!”

“Oh, but you did. Every single time I pulled at your hair.” Again, Luke ignored the part where he himself should have felt ashamed and decided to just challengingly stare back instead.

“Maybe you pulled too hard. Maybe I was in serious pain.” And, okay, that was so fucking stupid that Luke couldn’t prevent himself from barking out a disbelieving laugh.

“In serious pain, yeah, alright. That’s just lame, Clifford. And speaking of pain, why did you have to attach your stupid lips to my skin? Is that your new way of hurting people instead of simply punching them in the face?”

For a few seconds, Clifford just stared at him blankly. And suddenly his lips were curving into an almost devilish smirk and he stepped forward until he was standing right in front of Luke. “Oh, I remember that one,” he said, pulling Luke’s collar aside and pointing at the already fading love bite that was plastered on his collarbone. “Did it get you in trouble, Hemmings?”

“Fuck off,” was the last thing Luke managed to choke out before Clifford dragged him towards one of the stalls and pushed him through the door, only to shove him up against it then and lean forward. Luke wanted to push him away but he was kind of frozen right now. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked incredulously, his eyes widening in shock.

“Just refreshing a bit.”

“Don’t you dare – oh _fuck_!” Luke let out a loud gasp, because Clifford was already nibbling at his skin and it felt fucking fantastic, just like last Friday night. “Fuck,” he cursed, his head falling back against the door and his eyes fluttering shut. “Clifford, stop …” And since the other boy wasn’t listening, _of fucking course not_ , Luke decided to tangle his hands into his bright red hair and pull at it. Hard.

Clifford moaned against his skin and Luke didn’t even have enough time to smirk triumphantly, because suddenly his mouth was being attacked by Clifford’s lips and tongue, and then Clifford’s hands sneaked up under his shirt and started moving over his skin. Luke’s breath hitched in his throat and his heart seemed to stop beating for a second or two, because _what the fuck_ was happening here and _why the hell_ had Clifford initiated it once again, only that this time they were both sober and –

Clifford grinded up against him and all of the wildly spinning thoughts in Luke’s head were gone within a second. His grip in Clifford’s hair tightened and he started to kiss him back so fiercely that they both let out a loud moan.

“Not enjoying it, huh?” Luke panted after a minute or so before bringing their mouths back together and grinding back against him. “You’re not enjoying this _at all_ … and you’re definitely not moaning, right?” He pulled at his hair _again_ because the noises Clifford was making were absolutely amazing, and started grinding faster. “You’re such a goddamn liar, Clifford!”

“Fuck,” Clifford whimpered into his mouth, and that was the moment when Luke realised that they were both half-hard in their pants already. Maybe even a little more than that.

Shit. God, no, he couldn’t let this happen, he had to get out of here. _Now_.

“Oh no,” Clifford gasped when Luke tried to push him away, “you’re not leaving me, Hemmings! Not this time!”

For a short moment they both stared into each other’s eyes. A weakly whispered “We’re at school!” was the only thing Luke replied eventually. He honestly couldn’t think of anything else right now, his mind was absolutely blank.

“I don’t care!” Clifford said, breathing heavily and slotting their lips back together.

Luke’s tongue decided that this was a brilliant idea and made its way into Clifford’s mouth to explore every single corner there, and his eyes fell shut again. Okay, so he hated Clifford and Clifford hated him back, but snogging him just felt so fucking amazing! Maybe they could do this. Maybe they could make out a little, even though they hated each other. It wasn’t like anyone ever had to know about this, right?

“Luke? Are you in here?”

They both froze on the spot when they heard Niall’s voice and Luke was about to panic, but then he felt Clifford’s lips ghosting over his own and it seemed so _gentle_ that he actually forgot how to breathe for a second.

“Nialler, come on, he’s not here. Our next lesson is about to start, I’m sure he’s going to be there.”

“I’m not so sure, Liam, he seemed really upset. I’m going to find out what happened, it just has to have something to do with Clifford.”

“Yeah, I know. Someone should lock these two into a room and not let them out as long as they haven’t sorted things out. They can’t keep being at each other’s throats forever.”

Luke could practically feel that Clifford raised an eyebrow at that and he almost started to giggle, realising that Liam’s words were perfectly describing their current situation. Okay, so maybe they weren’t exactly _sorting things out_ but –

“Are you actually laughing?” Clifford asked when Liam and Niall had disappeared from the room, biting down on Luke’s lips and causing him to let out a little moan.

“No Clifford, I’m not laughing, but if we stay here any longer we’ll be late for the next lesson, and I can’t let that hap-”

“Shut up,” Clifford said nonchalantly.

Luke blinked at him. “Make me.”

“You’re such a smartass. I really hate you,” Clifford mumbled before going back to kissing him and pressing his entire body even closer towards him.

Luke was about to protest; however, when he suddenly felt Clifford’s hands on his belt, he took a sharp breath instead and let his own hands wander down to Clifford’s crotch. They were both still half-hard and Luke was more than willing to change that, no matter how. Right now, thinking about old people in swimwear wasn’t exactly easy though, not with Clifford unbuckling his belt and slipping one hand under the fabric of Luke’s underwear, so there seemed only one other option to get rid of his problem.

“Fuck,” he choked out while trying to process the fact that out of all people, _Michael Clifford_ was the first one to touch his dick.

“Shut up,” Clifford said once again, only this time he sounded even more breathless than before.

Luke decided to do so. Snogging Clifford’s face off seemed to be a way better occupation for his mouth anyway, and while Clifford began stroking his cock Luke somehow managed to unbuckle his belt as well and push one hand into his boxers to take Clifford’s erection into his hand. Clifford moaned at the contact, immediately speeding up the movements of his own left hand and burying the other one in Luke’s hair, and for a split second Luke was very well aware of the fact that he couldn’t possibly go back to class later. Not when he was quite sure that he already looked totally wrecked.

He didn’t have much time to think about it; in fact, his brain didn’t really allow him to think at all right now. Clifford’s hand felt so amazing on his dick and Luke’s own hand seemed to do quite a good job as well, if Clifford’s constant moans were anything to go by. However, Luke was still the first to reach his climax eventually, but before he could feel even slightly embarrassed about it Clifford was sagging against him and coming with a last deep moan.

They stayed silent for a few seconds, slowly processing what had just happened and trying to catch their breaths. Then Clifford took a step back, pushed Luke almost forcefully aside and reached for the door handle without saying a word.

Luke couldn’t believe it. “Really, Clifford? You’re just going to pretend nothing happened?”

Clifford seemed to hesitate for a moment, then he shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Hemmings.”

Luke’s eyes widened incredulously. “Are you fucking kidding me? You can’t be serious!”

“Nothing happened here,” Clifford insisted with a raised eyebrow. “And if you tell anyone something different, I’ll kill you!”

“Why would I tell anyone?” Luke asked, still staring at him in disbelief. “I’m not stupid.”

“Actually, you are.”

“Oh shut up! Will you ever stop insulting me?!”

“Nope.”

Luke wanted to punch him straight in the face. “You’re such an arsehole! I hate you!”

“Sure you do,” Clifford snorted. And then he actually had the nerve to _wink_ at him.

Luke could have slapped himself for being stupid enough to make out with him. _Twice_. “Alright, let’s not talk about it then. And you know what, Clifford? Don’t talk to me at all, just leave me the fuck alone!” he spat at him, shoving him out of the way and storming off.

He couldn’t go to his classroom, that was for sure. Everyone would notice his burning cheeks and his tousled hair, and he definitely didn’t want to answer any questions right now. So he left the school grounds, luckily without being seen by anyone, and sent Niall a text that he’d gone home as he “wasn’t feeling well”.

He was probably going to get in trouble for not telling his teacher before leaving, but he really couldn’t bring himself to care at this moment. All he hoped for was getting home as soon as possible and somehow being able to forget what had happened back in the bathroom.

Of course he couldn’t forget about it but at least he tried to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well ... did you guys like it? ;)
> 
> The next chapter will be uploaded in a week. Let's just say, I'll be gathering all the 5SOS and 1D boys together in this one, so things should be getting interesting. Very interesting. ;D


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. Have fun with the new chapter!

**11.**

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Luke murmured while following his older brother through the door of the pizzeria.

“Stop being ridiculous, it’s going to be fun,” Ashton replied with a smirk, causing him to look at him suspiciously.

“Why are you smirking, Ash?”

“I’m not.”

“Yes you are. You invited only Calum to join us, right?!”

“Of course not,” Ashton said, smiling at him innocently.

Luke’s mouth fell open. “Ash!”

“What?” Ashton stopped and turned around to look at him with a pout. “Louis and Harry are coming, too. Oh, and Zayn, do you remember him? He’s our former classmate who dropped out of school to become a tattoo artist. Why are you upset, I thought you liked my friends?”

“Oh, you mean your friends. Uh, yeah, of course I like them. I’m sorry, I thought … never mind,” Luke mumbled and tried not to blush. He was probably getting paranoid, but who could really blame him for it? Sure, since that unfortunate _incident_ in the bathroom four days ago he’d actually managed to ignore Clifford, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t constantly worrying about running into him eventually. Being forced to see him at school was bad enough, but Luke definitely wasn’t willing to face him on a Friday night.

When they’d approached their table less than a minute later, Luke’s whole body froze within a second.

“Hi guys,” Calum said with a huge grin plastered across his face and pulled Ashton into a tight hug.

Luke wanted to strangle them both and for once, Clifford actually seemed to agree with him, if the murderous glint in his eyes was anything to go by.

“Heeey,” Ashton grinned back and pressed a quick kiss to Calum’s lips. “You brought your best friend, what a surprise. Hi Michael, how’s it going?”

Clifford didn’t answer, he just kept staring at them angrily, and instead of him Luke was the one to open his mouth now, “Yeah, that is so not happening. Nice try, guys, but I’m out of here.”

“Oh no, you’re not,” Ashton protested, grabbing his arm and shoving him onto the bench, right next to Clifford.

“Oh hell no!” Clifford spat out.

Luke nodded frantically. “I am not staying here! Ash, how could you do this to me, you’re my brother, you’re supposed to be _nice_ to me! And don’t even try to pretend you didn’t know he was going to show up! God, I’m so mad at you right now, I’m going to –“

“Hello there,” a familiar voice chirped behind him, and before he knew it Ashton’s friends were sitting on the bench as well – which meant that now he and Clifford were both trapped between Louis and this Zayn guy he only vaguely remembered.

Clifford looked at Calum who sat down next to Zayn and pulled Ashton with him, while Harry was taking a seat next to Louis. “I’m going to kill you, Cal!”

“Shut up,” Calum smirked. Yes, he actually smirked, just like Ashton did – in fact, they all did, and suddenly Luke wanted to punch every single one of them.

“No, he’s right. I’m going to kill you, too!” he all but shouted across the table, which caused the others to smirk even wider.

“Yeah, go ahead,” Ashton said winking, “at least the two of you have something to work on together then. – So, Michael, you remember Louis and Harry, right? And this is Zayn, another friend of mine.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Calum chuckled. “My dearest friend here was so drunk last Friday, isn’t that right, Mike? You probably don’t remember a thing.”

“That’s bullshit, I wasn’t that drunk,” Clifford protested without hesitation.

Calum chuckled even louder. “Oh _really_. Come on, you couldn’t even stand on your own feet properly. Do I have to remind you that Ash had to drive you home and –“

“What?” Luke exclaimed, his eyes going wide in shock, and Clifford actually blushed.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know,” he mumbled while Luke just kept staring at them.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Ashton replied without even trying to suppress a grin. “It was kind of funny, actually.”

“Funny?” Clifford repeated, blushing even further. „What do you mean?“ As soon as he’d asked that question, he bit his lips and cleared his throat. “Actually, don’t say anything. I, um, think I remember everything and it wasn’t funny at all. - Are we going to order now or what?”

“I’m still not staying here,” Luke announced, poking Louis in the ribs. “Let me through.”

“Nope,” Louis refused to do so and stuck his tongue out at him.

Luke was about to push him off the bench but then a waiter appeared at their table, ready to take their orders, and Luke recognised him as the guy who’d lent him some of his clothes two weeks ago. “Welcome,” he smiled and when he saw Luke, his smile turned into a grin. “Oh, hi. Luke, right? How’s Lynn? – Oh, and I remember _you_ ,“ he added, looking directly at Clifford now.

Luke couldn’t stop himself from smirking. “Yeah, he’s the one who enjoyed a very spicy pizza here a while ago.”

“Shut up,” Clifford said in a warning tone.

Luke chose to ignore it. “You were crying your eyes out; it must have been _really_ spicy. I guess that’s what you get for trying to ruin other people’s lives,” he teased him mercilessly, and Clifford’s mouth fell open in realisation. Apparently he’d believed in an accident until now.

The waiter simply kept grinning. “Didn’t think I’d ever see the two of you at the same table, to be honest. What can I get for you guys?”

“I’m not so sure what those two are in need of,” Ashton replied with a grin that threatened to split his face in half, “but I’m quite sure they’ll figure it out eventually.”

That was the moment when Luke accepted his fate – not without blushing furiously though - and decided to concentrate simply on surviving the night; which wasn’t easy, really, considering the fact that Clifford’s leg was pressed against his own, sending tingling sensations through Luke’s entire body.

And it got even worse when they finally had their drinks and food in front of them and their arms and shoulders were involuntarily touching as well. Luke tried to ignore it, just like he tried to ignore the knowing smirk of the others, and gave his best to focus on the chatter around him instead, but unfortunately it didn’t work very well. The constant physical contact was slowly driving him insane; after less than twenty minutes he was ready to do anything, really _anything_ , just to escape this cruel situation.

Then one of Clifford’s hands suddenly slipped under the table and started moving along Luke’s thigh, and Luke’s breath almost got caught in his throat. What the hell was Clifford doing?!?

“Luke? Are you alright?”

Luke’s head shot up and he looked at his brother with wide eyes, wondering if Ashton had noticed what was going on. “What? What do you mean?”

Ashton just gave a shrug, while Calum next to him was very obviously trying – and failing – to hide a grin. However, Louis was the one to speak, “You seem a little tense there, Luke.”

For some reason, Luke was absolutely sure that Clifford was having a hard time holding back a laugh right now. Stupid arsehole, this was all his fault! “It’s nothing,” Luke said through gritted teeth, trying to push Clifford’s hand away without letting anyone see, but Clifford’s grip only seemed to tighten. Luke kept trying anyway; however, touching Clifford’s skin only made things worse, so he finally choked out, “I just … I have to pee. I need to go to the bathroom. Now.”

Ashton raised an eyebrow at him. “Don’t you dare use this as an excuse to leave.”

“No, I’m serious. I’ll be back in a minute. Lou, Harry, get up, _please_ ,” Luke all but pleaded.

Two minutes later he was standing in the small bathroom and splashing water in his heated face. Both of the two stalls were currently unoccupied and he was damn glad about it; he still couldn’t believe that Clifford had actually been touching him out there, and he definitely didn’t understand _why_ he had done it. Luke almost wished for him to go back to insulting him all the time instead of teasing him like that.

“Fucking idiot,” he murmured, deciding that he’d wasted enough water and turning it off. “I’m going to kill him, seriously, he’s going to _suffer_ …”

The door swung open and literally three seconds later Luke was being pressed up against the wall. “Shut up,” Clifford said before Luke even got the chance to open his mouth, and tangled both hands in Luke’s hair. “Fuck, Hemmings, why are you so fucking hot?!”

Luke’s eyes widened both in shock and surprise. “What?” was the only thing he managed to get out in a high-pitched voice.

Instead of answering that, Clifford leaned even closer. “Shut up,” he repeated, mumbling the words against his lips in an almost soft tone, and Luke’s eyes fluttered shut within a split second. It was pathetic, really, but he couldn’t help it.

“What … what if someone’s coming in?” he whispered. His heart was beating fast in his chest and his head already felt slightly dizzy.

“Don’t care,” Clifford whispered back, slotting their lips together without hesitation, and Luke’s heart started beating even faster when he realised how damn _gently_ Clifford’s lips were moving against his own.

This was new. This didn’t feel like anger or sexual frustration at all, and despite the fact that Luke had been so fucking aroused only minutes ago, he actually kind of liked it like that. A lot. Probably more than he should have, to be honest.

“Fuck,” he cursed silently, bringing his hands up and wrapping them around Clifford’s waist to pull him even closer, and his heart seemed to miss a few beats when he suddenly felt him _smile_ against his lips.

“Just to be clear,” Clifford said, sounding so breathless that Luke wanted nothing more than to kiss him for the rest of his life, “I still hate you, dumbass. It’s not my fault that you’re so fucking kissable!”

“I’m not,” Luke replied, or at least he wanted to, but apparently his voice had died somewhere in his throat, because all he got out was a quiet whimper and of fucking course it made Clifford chuckle.

“You’re enjoying it, Hemmings.”

“I’m not,” Luke wanted to protest once again, and once again he failed to speak. He didn’t understand what was happening or _why_ it was happening, since his mind had gone completely blank, but he didn’t even care right now.

When Clifford’s lips left his mouth to trail down his neck, Luke’s fingers dug into his waist. “Please, don’t. Not here,” he whispered hoarsely. “We should –“ And then he let out an embarrassingly loud squeak, because the other boy had been lifting him up without a warning and was carrying him towards one of the stalls now, while grinning like the idiot he was. And let’s face it, Luke definitely had no other choice than to wrap his legs around his waist, nuzzle his face into his neck and breathe in his heavenly smell.

“Kiss me,” Clifford sighed half a minute later, pressing him against the now locked door of the stall and looking at him with an actual pout.

At this point, Luke was absolutely positive about this whole situation being just a weird dream he was having. But if it was a dream, he could as well fully enjoy it, right?

Clifford totally seemed to agree, if his sudden fierceness was anything to go by. His tongue practically attacked Luke’s mouth and he desperately grinded up against him, eliciting a deep moan from Luke’s throat.

“You’re so stupid,” Luke mumbled eventually, slinging his arms loosely around Clifford’s neck and biting down on his lips. _Hard_. “And we really shouldn’t be doing this …”

Clifford grinded against him again, causing Luke’s back to hit the door in an almost painful way. “Why not?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Luke panted, his voice dangling somewhere between breathlessness and sarcasm. “Maybe because we hate each other?”

“So what? Since when do people have to like someone if they want to kiss them?”

Out of all the things he could have answered, there was only one single thought left in Luke’s mind. “Why do you want to kiss me anyway?” he asked after a short moment of silence, his voice shaking a little, and buried his hands in the bright red hair.

Clifford was abandoning his lips now and pressing soft kisses to his collarbones instead. It took him a while to reply but when he finally did, Luke really didn’t know whether to punch him or not. “Well, I don’t see anyone else volunteer to snog me, so. Now shut up, Hemmings.”

“But –“

“I said, shut up.”

“Don’t talk to me like that! And don’t tell me what to do, I’m not going to –“

“Can I blow you?”

Luke’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “What?”

“I really want to,” Clifford confessed surprisingly honest while putting him back to his feet and looking at him expectantly.

Luke gulped. Okay, this was definitely not real. It couldn’t be. Why for fuck’s sake would Clifford want to suck his dick?!

“So?” Clifford said, challengingly raising an eyebrow at him. “If you don’t answer me, I’ll just do it.”

Luke wasn’t able to speak, he just kept staring at him in disbelief and then he found himself giving a hesitant little nod. Clifford smirked at him almost triumphantly. “I thought so. Take off your pants.”

“I, um, yeah, okay,” Luke babbled nervously while unbuckling his belt. At least he tried to, but his hands were shaking like crazy.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Clifford groaned, rolling his eyes and pushing Luke’s fingers aside to take matters into his own hands. “God, Hemmings, do you ever accomplish anything in your pathetic life?”

“Shut up,” Luke murmured and silently cursed the fact that he was blushing furiously. “My life’s not pathetic.”

Clifford snorted and yanked at his belt. “Yeah, right.”

“Stop insulting me,” Luke huffed out, shoving at his shoulder and folding his arms across his chest.

“You’re not telling me what to do, Hemmings,” Clifford said in such an arrogant voice that Luke just couldn’t stop himself from pushing him again. “Ouch! That’s not very nice, Hemmings. Do you want me to suck your dick or not?”

Luke’s face heated up even more. “You were the one who suggested it!”

“Well, I was going to do you a favour …”

“Since when are you doing me any favours?”

Clifford rolled his eyes again. “Shut up, Hemmings. You should be grateful, you know. I don’t think anyone else is ever going to do that to you, or at least not of their own free will.” And just like that, he went down on his knees and started to peel Luke’s dark skinny jeans off his long legs.

Luke bit his lips so hard he could almost taste blood. Fuck, he still couldn’t believe it but this was really and truly happening; Michael Clifford was going to suck his dick in a public rest room, and although Luke had never received a blowjob before, he was pretty sure that it would feel simply amazing. So, yeah, he definitely wasn’t going to complain.

“Try to stay quiet,” Clifford commanded while pulling down his boxers as well and leaning slightly forward.

Luke was about to open his mouth and give him a snappish answer, when suddenly Clifford’s lips were pressed to his bare thighs, sucking and licking eagerly. Luke immediately forgot how to form coherent words and let out a small moan instead, and Clifford chuckled triumphantly while mouthing at his sensitive skin.

“You like that, Hemmings?”

“Fuck,” Luke gasped as he tangled one hand in Clifford’s hair and pulled hard, making the other boy moan as well. “Don’t be such a fucking tease, Clifford!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I’m a fucking tease as well. Sorry! :D  
> This scene will be continued in the next chapter though, so don't worry.^^


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! :)  
> Did you guys see Ashton’s [tweet](http://throwinrocksatmukeswindow.tumblr.com/post/113503138643/) about Calum’s voice last week?! *squeal*
> 
> Have fun with the new chapter! ;)

**12.**

“Don’t be such a fucking tease, Clifford!”

Clifford looked at him from under his eyelashes, a little smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth, and Luke couldn’t believe that even in a situation like this he had that stupid smug expression on his face. “I thought I told you to shut up,” Clifford said, sounding so incredibly pleased with himself that Luke was really tempted to slide his hand down to his neck and break it.

Instead of that, he decided to pull at his hair again, and Clifford’s smirk fell right off his face. Luke raised an eyebrow at him, trying to suppress a grin, “Are you going to put your mouth on my dick or not?”

Clifford shrugged. “Just remember, I’ll kill you if you ever tell anyone.” And before Luke could even begin to roll his eyes at him, he parted his lips and took the tip of Luke’s cock into his mouth.

“Fuck,” Luke breathed out and tightened his grip around the dyed strands of hair, and Clifford moaned around him and started to suck at the tip. Luke’s eyes fluttered shut. “Fuck,” he repeated in a nearly desperate tone and pulled at his hair over and over again, his hands couldn’t seem to do anything else right now, “have you ever … oh God … done this … before?”

Clifford didn’t reply; he just smirked at him while taking a few more inches into his hot wet mouth and sucking even harder. Okay, so he definitely had done this before, there was no way this was the first time he was doing this, and Luke made a mental note to make sure it wouldn’t be the last time either. As much as he disliked that stupid twat, he had to admit that Clifford had some fantastic skills going on there. Would be a shame to waste them, right?

“For fuck’s sake, would you keep your damn voice down?” Clifford complained after bobbing his head up and down for a minute or so, and pulled off completely.

“Sorry,” Luke said, already breathing heavily, and felt a hot blush creeping up his neck. “Not my fault though,” he added, biting his lips and trying not to feel too embarrassed about the fact that he’d been moaning way too loudly.

“Oh, so you’re saying it’s mine?” Clifford was smirking again and Luke was so close to yanking his head forward and stuffing his erection back into his mouth. “I must be really good then, huh?”

“Just stop talking and put your mouth to better use,” Luke groaned, and for once Clifford actually obeyed and went back to licking and sucking and driving him completely _insane_. Luke was moaning again now, simply not being able to hold back the noises coming from his throat, and started thrusting his hips forward uncontrollably. That only seemed to spur Clifford on though; he kept bobbing his head up and down without pulling off entirely anymore, not even once, and Luke was staring at him with wide eyes now, suddenly realising that Clifford had been looking at him the whole time.

There was something in those piercing green eyes that made Luke’s heart skip a beat, and before he knew it he was coming down Clifford’s throat, whimpering a breathless “Fuck!” and sagging back against the door with a last guttural moan. It wasn’t until Clifford unsuccessfully tried to scramble to his feet that Luke became aware of the fact that his hands were still buried in the now completely tousled red hair, and when he finally noticed his cheeks heated up within a split second.

“Um, sorry,” he murmured, quickly pulling his hands back while still trying to catch his breath. “That … that was, uh, really good. I guess.”

Clifford was grinning at him like an idiot. “I know. Pretty impressive, huh?”

Luke was about to answer that it wasn’t impressive at all, low average at the most, when all of a sudden he heard the door of the room creak loudly. And that’s when he panicked.

“Luke? You’ve been away for ages,” Ashton said. Luke, however, didn’t even listen anymore, being too busy pulling his jeans and underwear up and pushing Clifford out of his way. Thank God there was a window right next to them, and thank God Luke didn’t trip over his own feet for once as he yanked it open and climbed outside as fast as possible.

“Um, your brother isn’t here,” he heard Clifford stutter behind him. “It’s me, Michael. I came in, like, five minutes ago and nobody was here. Maybe he climbed out of the window.”

“Are you kidding me?” Ashton shouted. “And what are you doing in here?” he added after a short moment, his voice oozing with suspicion. “Didn’t you tell us you wanted to go to the staff and ask for something to clean up the mess you’ve made? The whole table is still soaked in coke!”

“Yeah, sorry. I had to pee, it was an emergency,” was the last thing Luke heard before buckling his belt and running off.

It took him an hour to get home, because apparently he was stupid enough to get on the wrong bus without even noticing for over ten minutes. When he finally unlocked the front door of his parents’ house, he had three unanswered calls from Ashton, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. After all, he had been _forced_ to sit next to Clifford and have his leg pressed against his own, so technically the whole thing wasn’t even his own fault …

He’d never been more relieved that his parents weren’t home – they’d gone away for the weekend to celebrate their wedding anniversary – and that therefore he didn’t have to answer any questions. Having to ignore the looks people had given him on the ride home had been awkward enough; the word orgasm was probably written all over his face and he’d silently prayed for not running into anyone who knew him.

He headed to his room first, took off his clothes and threw them onto his bed carelessly. Then he locked himself in the bathroom - just in case Ashton planned on coming home anytime soon and murdering him for escaping from the pizzeria - where he spent the next thirty minutes under the shower, trying not to think about Clifford’s sinful red lips being wrapped around his cock and, by the way, failing miserably.

He also failed to not picture those piercing green eyes looking at him the way they’d been doing only an hour ago, and while he was slowly coming down from his second high of the day, he cursed himself for being such an idiot. How was he supposed to stop making out with Clifford anytime soon, when he couldn’t even take a damn shower without thinking about him?!

“I hate him. I hate him, I hate him, I hate him,” he mumbled two minutes later while leaving the bathroom and fixing the towel around his waist. “I can’t believe this. Fuck. He’s so stupid, I fucking hate –“

“Hi there, dumbass. You owe me.”

Crying out like a maniac, Luke swirled around too fast and nearly bumped into a small table. Okay, first of all: He had to stop being so clumsy, for fuck’s sake. And secondly: He really had to stop imagining things. There was absolutely no reasonable explanation why Michael Clifford was standing right in front of him, in his own house, so he had to be hallucinating. Right?

“Nice towel,” Clifford stated with that incredibly smug smirk plastered all across his face. “A bit too small, don’t you think?”

Luke was staring at him in absolute horror. Oh god, he wasn’t hallucinating, this was fucking _real_. “How … what are you doing in my house?” he stuttered out eventually while totally ignoring Clifford’s last comment.

“Michael?” someone shouted from Ashton’s room, and not even ten seconds later Calum appeared in the doorway with a wide grin. “Hi Luke. I think Ash wants to talk to you.”

Luke didn’t respond to that. “What is _he_ doing here?” he asked instead, almost screaming out the question, and threw another horrified look at Clifford.

“Oh,” Calum said as if it was nothing, “we were talking about music and stuff, and you probably don’t know that, but Mikey and I always wanted to start a band, so Ash brought us here to show us his amazing drumming skills, and we –“

“We even convinced Michael to come with us,” Ashton finished the sentence for him, popping up behind Calum and pulling him into his arms. “You should join us, Lukey. Go put some clothes on and get your guitar.”

Luke shook his head in disbelief. “Have you lost your mind?”

“You play the guitar?” Clifford blurted out only half a second later, looking at him in surprise.

Luke decided to ignore him. “Ash, you can’t just bring people home. Mum and Dad aren’t even home. And you could’ve asked me first!”

“Well, I tried to,” Ashton replied with a shrug, “but you didn’t answer your phone, so.”

“You play the guitar?” Clifford repeated his question, still staring directly at Luke. “I don’t believe that. I mean, seriously, you’re all thumbs, how would you possibly be able to –“

“Trust me, he’s good,” Ashton promised with a grin. “Very good. You guys should hear him play, you’re going to love it.”

“I’m not all thumbs,” Luke said, staring right back at Clifford with a challenging expression in his eyes. “In fact, I’m really good with my hands, you know.”

Calum made a choking noise that sounded like he was about to scream with laughter and Clifford’s face went bright red within a nanosecond. Luke almost felt pleased with himself for a moment, but then his brother started to giggle, “You’re blushing, Michael.”

“No I’m not!” Clifford squeaked, looking absolutely mortified.

Ashton giggled even louder. “Your face is already matching your hair. Nice colour, by the way. Come on, Cal, let’s go downstairs and get some snacks. Michael, you can come, too. Or would you rather have Luke show you how good he is with his hands?”

Luke wanted to die. He should’ve known. He should’ve known that Ashton would turn his own words against him and embarrass not only Clifford but also _his own brother_. Most of the time, Ashton was a nice guy, but this was plain cruel.

“No thanks,” Clifford choked out after a few awful seconds of silence while very obviously trying not to look at anyone’s faces. “I’ll come with you, I’m thirsty.” As soon as the words were out, he blushed even further and looked like he wanted the ground to open and swallow him up immediately.

“Yeah, to be honest with you, you’re looking really thirsty right now,” Ashton replied dryly while Luke turned around and started running towards his room. The last thing he heard before sprinting inside and shutting the door was Calum’s roaring laughter behind him.

This was an absolute nightmare. Michael Clifford was in his house and he couldn’t get rid of him, since Ashton had invited him over. Why? Why was fate being so cruel to him? What had he done to deserve this?!

After pacing through his room for a good five minutes, Luke put on a pair of boxers and a black T-shirt. He was about to lock his door and throw himself onto his bed, when suddenly his stomach began to grumble, reminding him of the fact that he’d only eaten two slices of pizza before escaping to the bathroom. Great, now he had to go downstairs and get something to eat, because there was no way he was going to fall asleep with an empty stomach.

He made it downstairs without running into the others and headed to the kitchen. There was some pasta left in the fridge, along with a bowl of tomato sauce and some meat balls, so Luke decided to put everything into the microwave. However, as soon as he’d closed the fridge, there were footsteps behind him and before he could even turn around, two arms were sneaking around his waist and pulling him close against a warm body.

“Hey there,” he heard a whisper that made his entire body shudder. Then he felt a pair of soft lips nibble at his earlobe and his heart seemed to skip a few beats.

“What … are you doing?” he asked breathlessly, desperately resisting the urge to let himself fall into the warm embrace but not attempting to escape from it either.

“Well, what do you think I’m doing, Hemmings?”

“You can’t just … stop, fuck, what if the others –“

“They’re busy snogging in the living room. You might not want to sit on that couch ever again, they’re probably going to do a lot more than that.” Clifford let out a soft chuckle and Luke had a really hard time keeping up his resistance. Fuck, this wasn’t supposed to feel so good. Really, it was so unfair.

“Why aren’t you just leaving then, Clifford?”

“Because you still owe me.”

“I don’t owe you anything,” Luke murmured, biting his lips. “I didn’t ask you to blow me, you wanted to do it. You can’t expect me to return the favour.”

“Okay, you’re right,” Clifford admitted after a moment of silence, releasing him from his arms and taking a step back. “I’m sorry. I just, uh. I mean, you were right earlier. You really are good with your hands.”

It didn’t even take three seconds for Luke’s whole face to heat up. His cheeks were _burning_. “Shut up,” he mumbled, and while turning around and pushing him out of his way, he desperately avoided looking at him. “Just leave,” he added before hurrying out of the kitchen and towards the stairs.

Then he heard loud moans coming from the living room and for some reason, he felt a hot wave of anger bubble up inside him. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that his brother got to snog his boyfriend on a comfortable couch, while all he himself could do was make out with his stupid arch enemy in some goddamn public rest rooms.

Twenty seconds later he found himself standing in the middle of the living room, his eyes practically screaming murder, and before he could stop himself he was yelling at his brother. His brother, who was sitting on the couch with his eyes closed, while his boyfriend was in his lap and eagerly nipping at the bare skin of his chest.

“Can you at least do that in your own room?! There are other people in this house, you know! People who want to sit on this couch without being grossed out!”

Calum paused for a moment and Ashton raised his eyebrows. Suddenly Luke felt like a complete idiot for yelling at them. He probably was.

“Alright, if it bothers you so much we’ll go to my room,” Ashton said after a few seconds of silence. “Hey, Michael, is that okay with you?”

“Sure.” Clifford, who was leaning against the doorframe, just shrugged and then added a little nod. “I’ll just take the bus home. Where’s the next bus station?”

“Luke can show you,” Ashton replied with an almost evil smirk. Then he took Calum’s hand into his own and dragged him out of the room and upstairs.

“I hate you!” Luke called after him, his anger being gone and replaced with pure frustration. His life was a mess and it was most likely his own fault.

“No you don’t!” Ashton shouted back.

Luke groaned. He wanted nothing more than to go to his room and crawl into his bed. Then again, he probably wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway. “Okay,” he said to Clifford, catching the other boy with surprise. “Come on, I’ll show you. It’s only a ten-minute walk to the bus stop. Just don’t talk to me, then we’re maybe both going to survive it.”

“Okay,” Clifford nodded and then looked him over with a grin, “but you might want to put on some more clothes first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you like it? :)


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I absolutely love you guys, you are the best. Thanks for all the comments; once again you made me very happy! :)  
> Enjoy the new chapter! To be honest, it's my favourite one so far - I hope you'll like it, too!

**13.**

It took them nearly twenty minutes to get to the bus stop – to be fair, it wasn’t Luke’s fault that one of his neighbours came up to him as soon as they’d left the house and asked them a million questions about the place his parents were staying at over the weekend.

Of course Clifford accused him anyway, when they’d finally approached the bus stop and realised that the last bus of the day had left about five minutes ago. Groaning, he plopped onto the small bench and glared up at Luke. “You’re such an idiot, Hemmings!”

“Shut up, it’s not my fault,” Luke grumbled and let out a deep sigh. Great, now he was stuck with Clifford even longer. It wasn’t fair!

“Of course it’s your fault,” Clifford protested. “You could’ve just told your neighbour to leave you alone! Why do you have to be so fucking nice all the time?!”

“I’m not being nice to _you_ ,” Luke pointed out.

For a split second, the corners of Clifford’s mouth almost seemed to twitch. “True.” And after a few more seconds, he added, “Well, I’m just going to call my parents then and ask them to pick me up. I definitely can’t afford a cab home, I don’t even know where exactly I am.” He pulled out his phone and started to groan as soon as he’d touched the screen. “Fuck, the battery’s empty. Can I use your phone?”

“Left it at home,” Luke replied with a shrug.

Clifford threw him an annoyed look. “What kind of idiot leaves their house without their phone?” 

Luke tried his hardest to fight back the urge to kick him straight in the balls. “Stop insulting me, you twat, or you’ll have to walk home!”

“Fiiine,” Clifford said, rolling his eyes. “Can we go back then? It’s getting late, just in case you haven’t noticed.”

“So what? Are you afraid of the dark?” Luke couldn’t stop himself from teasing him a bit.

“Shut up, I’m not,” Clifford protested, a light blush becoming visible on his face. “I just don’t want to wake up my parents by calling them too late.”

“Fine, let’s go.”

They’d been walking for about five minutes, when suddenly Luke heard a loudly shouted “Hey loser!” behind him, and within half a second his whole body froze. Oh fuck. Now it was official: He hated his life.

“Who’s that?” Clifford asked after turning around and raised an eyebrow at the boy who was approaching them. He had black hair and really broad shoulders, and he was way taller than both of them. Judging by the way Clifford looked him up and down with a sceptical expression on his face, he disliked him at first sight.

Luke cleared his throat. “Nobody. Let’s go. Please.”

“Not so fast,” the dark-haired guy smirked at him while completely ignoring Clifford. “I haven’t seen you in a while, you can’t just leave. What are you doing out here anyway, loser?”

“Hey,” Clifford said, taking a step forward, “don’t call him that, arsehole!”

Luke’s eyes widened both in shock and surprise and he didn’t even hesitate to blurt out, “He didn’t mean it, Will!”

Clifford raised his eyebrows once again. “Of course I meant it.”

“Your friend here seems a little too confident,” Will snorted at Luke without so much as glancing at Clifford, clearly not even taking him seriously. Right now, this was definitely a good thing; as long as he didn’t take him seriously, he wasn’t going to do something bad to him.

Not that Luke cared if Clifford got hurt. Because he definitely didn’t. But Luke himself didn’t want to get involved in a fight, so he had to get them both out of this situation. “Will, please. Just leave us alone. And he’s not my friend!” Then he grabbed Clifford’s arm and started to drag him away, hoping that Will wasn’t going to follow them.

“Bye loser!” Will called after him and Luke felt a wave of relief wash over him. But then Clifford suddenly stopped and swirled around, facing Will again and throwing an almost angry look at him.

“You know what, Will? You’re the loser, not him. You’re also really dumb. And ugly. In fact, I’m sure nobody likes you, because you’re a fucking idiot who can’t do anything else than try to make other people feel bad!”

Once again, Luke’s entire body froze. He wasn’t even sure what scared him the most – Will clenching his fists or Clifford actually _defending_ him, although he was the one to insult Luke all the time! What had gotten into him, for fuck’s sake?! Will had called Luke a loser, so what? It wasn’t the worst thing Luke had heard in his life, and it definitely wasn’t worth a fight!

But it was too late for any sort of damage control. Will didn’t even hesitate for a second; he just stormed towards them and threw his fist straight into Clifford’s face, causing the redhead to stumble and fall to the ground with a helpless yelp, and Luke wanted to do something, _anything_ , he really did, but he simply couldn’t move. He’d probably never felt more scared and paralysed in his whole life.

Thank God some car was slowly passing by at this very moment, causing Will to turn around and run away. The car disappeared around the next corner, the driver not even bothering to stop, and suddenly Luke could move again.

“Oh my God,” he choked out while kneeling down next to the motionless body. “Fuck, Michael, are you okay???”

The other boy slowly opened his eyes, blinking at him and letting out a pained groan. “Do I look okay?! Fuck, I’m going to kill that idiot, he’s going to suf – wait, what did you just call me?”

Luke’s eyes widened in realisation. “What,” he said, feeling his cheeks heat up already. “Nothing. – You’re a fucking idiot, you know that?” he mumbled quickly and bit his lips. “Why can you never shut up?”

“Don’t know.” Clifford was still staring at him with a strange expression on his face. “I didn’t know he’d punch me _that_ hard. How bad does it look?”

“Your nose is bleeding,” Luke answered quietly. “Only a little though, I think he mostly missed it and hit your eye instead. That’s going to be swollen, I guess.”

“What a shame,” Clifford replied dryly, “now I have to dye my hair again. Red won’t go with my new eye colour.”

“Oh shut up!” Luke shouted at him and shoved at his shoulder.

Clifford blinked at him again. “Ouch. Don’t do that, I’m hurt.”

“Yeah, well, I won’t stay here for the rest of my life, so you better get up instead of talking,” Luke murmured while starting to search through his pockets for a tissue. He didn’t find one though, so by the time they arrived at the front door Clifford’s hands were smeared with blood.

“At least my hair is matching my hands now,” he stated while following Luke into the kitchen. “Maybe I don’t have to dye it after all.”

“You,” Luke said, pushing him onto the nearest chair and throwing a towel at him, “are the single most annoying person on this planet. Wait here and wipe that blood off your hands and your face, I’ll get you some ice for your eye.”

“Forget the ice, it’s going to swell up anyway. You could try to kiss it better though,” Clifford suggested with his typical smug smirk and for the first time ever Luke thought that he kind of liked it.

“You wish,” he replied and grinned back at him for a moment, before turning towards the door and hurrying down into the basement.

“At least get me some ice cream, too!” Clifford called after him. “I’m starving!”

“That’s not my problem!”

“But I defended you! I’m a hero, I deserve it!”

For some reason, this led Luke into such a hard fit of laughter that he almost tripped on his way downstairs. He was still laughing when he returned with a small bag of frozen peas – in lack of an ice pack – and stumbled into the kitchen, only to realise that Clifford was gone.

“I’m here!” he heard a voice from the living room. “Your couch is more comfortable than those chairs in the kitchen,” Clifford added, as soon as Luke had entered the room, and scrunched up his nose. “I’m just going to pretend I didn’t see my best friend and your brother making out here earlier.”

“Why did you have to remind me of that?” Luke whined while stepping closer and dropping the bag of peas into Clifford’s lap.

“Because if I have to remember it, the least you can do is suffer with me. Where’s my ice cream?” Clifford asked while looking at him with an actual pout.

His lips were so full and red and suddenly Luke was so on board with the idea of kissing him that he had to physically stop himself from throwing himself onto his lap. “Sorry, we’re out of ice cream.”

“Well,” Clifford said, replacing his pout with a smirk and carelessly chucking the bag of peas to the floor, “I guess you have to offer me something else then. Something really sweet.”

“Chocolate?” As soon as the words had left his mouth, Luke felt a hot blush creep up his neck. God, he was so stupid. “Oh,” he mumbled, ducking his head and trying to hide his reddening cheeks.

Clifford let out a soft chuckle before grabbing Luke’s hands and quickly pulling him onto his lap. “Maybe later,” he whispered, leaning his face towards him. “Look, my nose stopped bleeding.”

“What a shame,” Luke whispered back, not even attempting to ignore the fact that his heart was beating faster than ever in his chest. “I could’ve kissed it better …”

“It still hurts, you know.”

“Oh, shut up,” Luke murmured and gently pressed their lips together.

Two seconds later Clifford was wrapping his arms around his body, pulling him even closer and happily sighing into his mouth. Luke brought his hands up, ready to tangle them into the soft strands of hair, but then somehow their noses were bumping into each other and a pained noise escaped Clifford’s throat.

Luke pulled back immediately, his hands ending up on Clifford’s cheeks and lingering there for a moment. “Sorry,” he murmured with an apologetic look, suddenly becoming very aware of their current positions and blushing a bit. What the hell was he doing?!

“Don’t be,” Clifford protested without hesitation. There was something so intense in his wide green eyes that made Luke want to reach for it and keep it in his heart forever. It was stupid and ridiculous and Luke didn’t understand what was going on in his mind right now _at all_ , but he didn’t have much time to think about it anyway.

Because suddenly Clifford’s lips were back on his, practically melting them away, and before Luke could even attempt to pull back again, he was landing on his back and somewhat helplessly staring up at the other boy. Clifford smiled, tightening his grip on Luke’s biceps and slowly scooting closer, and Luke was taken aback by the thought that he still was too far away. It wasn’t enough, not even close.

“Is this okay?” Clifford asked quietly, their faces now being only a few inches apart, and for a tiny moment he actually looked kind of shy. “I mean, I, um, I’ll just go home if you want me to.” And when he got nothing than silence as a response, he cleared his throat and bit his lips. “Can … can you say something? Please, Luke. I, uh, I mean Hemmings. – Actually, you know what? I like Luke better.”

Luke’s eyes widened and his stupid heart did a backflip. For a short moment, none of them spoke a word, but then Luke just blurted out, “Yeah, me too … Michael.”

And Clifford, no, _Michael_ , only stared at him for a few seconds before answering that with a smile. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” Luke said, grinning back at him. “Can you kiss me now, dumbass?”

“Heeey,” Michael whined and pinched his arm. “Don’t insult me, you dork.” Then he leaned further down, closing the gap between them and pressing his lips to the corner of Luke’s mouth.

Luke let out a giggle. A fucking _giggle_. “I want a proper kiss, dickhead. And by the way, you look awful,” he told him bluntly, earning a mock offended snort in response.

“I know that you don’t like my face, Luke, but you don’t have to rub it in.”

“Shut up, I’m not rubbing anything.”

Michael smirked against his lips. “Too bad. You’re pretty good at that.”

Luke chose to ignore that last comment. “I’m serious, your eye looks really bad. Now get that bag of peas and –“

“Nope,” Michael interrupted him, nuzzling his face against Luke’s shoulder and smiling against the fabric of his shirt. “I’m not getting up. You’re like a comfy pillow.”

“And you’re so stubborn, it’s unbelievable,” Luke murmured with a sigh before wrapping his arms tightly around Michael’s body and closing his eyes. “Don’t complain when it looks even worse tomorrow.”

“Mhmm. Stop talking and kiss me.”

“I really don’t like it when you’re bossing me around,” Luke grumbled but kissed him anyway.

“Shut up, you love it,” Michael said matter-of-factly, bringing his hands up to tousle Luke’s hair playfully, and Luke sighed happily and grabbed the nearest blanket.

“Here, help me with that. - You know,” he stated after Michael had managed to spread the blanket over them, “if I’m a comfy pillow, then you’re a cuddly kitten.”

“No I’m not,” Michael mumbled while snuggling closer and going back to pressing sweet kisses to his lips.

At some point, they both must have fallen asleep, huddled against each other with their arms and legs tangled together underneath the blanket. However, when Luke woke up the next morning, it only took him a few seconds to realise that something was wrong. He slowly sat up on the couch, blinking a few times and shoving the blanket off his stiffened body, and then his heart seemed to skip a few beats.

Michael was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry guys, but there will be no update next week as I won't be home. :/  
> I'll upload the next chapter in two weeks, I promise. :)


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, I'm baaack. :)  
> Have fun with the new chapter!

**14.**

When Calum woke up the next morning, it was to the sight of Ashton kneeling between his legs and wrapping his pretty pink lips around his already half-hard cock.

“Oh my God,” Calum said with wide eyes, his breath hitching in his throat.

Ashton paused and looked at him with a light blush on his cheeks. “Morning, Cal. I, um, I just … uh, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have –“

“Are you kidding me?” Calum interrupted him with a disbelieving laugh. “You’re not going to apologise for waking me up with a blowjob, are you?”

“Um,” Ashton mumbled, his face reddening even further. “I just, I couldn’t resist, you look so good when you’re asleep … I mean, no, you always look good, not only when you’re asleep, I just, uh …”

Calum couldn’t help it, he let out a small chuckle. “Okay, first of all: You look even cuter than usual when you blush. And secondly: Can you just shut up and suck my dick? Please?”

“Alright,” Ashton replied after a minute or so, when he’d finally managed to stop his hysterical fit of laughter, “I guess I can’t say no to that very polite question of yours.”

“Sorry,” Calum said, grinning down at him a little apologetically. “It’s just, uh. It felt so good when you did it last night. Plus, I’ve never sucked a dick but I kind of want to, so, um, you should probably teach me few more times?”

Ashton giggled again. “Okay. Just try to stay still this time, yeah? Last night you almost choked me to death.”

Now Calum was the one to blush furiously. “Sorry about that. Oh, wait. Can you, um, kiss me first?”

“Sure.” Ashton’s eyes were lighting up and he leaned towards him with a wide smile on his lips. “If you don’t mind my morning breath …”

“I don’t. Mine is probably worse.”

“Nope,” Ashton chuckled when he pulled back after a few minutes. Somehow they’d lost track of time during what had quickly escalated into a hot make out session. “And even if it was, I wouldn’t care,” he added with a fond smile while pressing little kisses to Calum’s bare chest.

The younger boy was breathing heavily now. “Please, Ash,” he all but pleaded, tangling both hands in Ashton’s hair and pulling slightly.

Ashton was about to crawl further down and put his mouth back where it belonged, when suddenly they heard a loud “OW, FUCK!” on the other side of the door, and within less than ten seconds Ashton managed to scramble off the bed and sprint across the room.

“Luke!” he exclaimed after yanking the door open. “Are you okay? What happened?"

“I’m fine,” Calum heard Luke huff out. “Just knocked my shoulder against that fucking doorframe. - Why are you naked? No, don’t answer that, just go back to your boyfriend and leave me alone.”

“Are you mad at me?” Ashton asked in an almost sad tone and Calum wanted nothing more than to pull him into his arms and snog him senseless until he was happy again.

“No, I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at myself, why am I so fucking stupid?” Luke shouted angrily and then a door was being slammed shut.

Calum frowned. “What is he talking about? Do you think something happened last night when he went to the bus stop with Michael?”

Ashton shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. I should talk to him anyway; he’s my little brother, after all, and I can’t see him unhappy. Um, you don’t mind, do you?”

“Of course not,” Calum answered without hesitation and gave him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll just wait here. Or maybe I’ll shower, if that’s okay?”

“Of course. You can use my shampoo, it’s the green bottle. And there are clean towels in the bottom drawer.”

So Ashton went to Luke’s room and Calum took a shower. When they met downstairs twenty minutes later, both of them only wearing a pair of underwear, Ashton looked so concerned that Calum didn’t even hesitate to pull him into a tight hug, “Are you okay, Ash?”

“Yeah,” Ashton murmured, nuzzling his face into Calum’s hair. Neither of them heard the quiet footsteps on the stairs. “Actually, no. I don’t know. I’m so worried about Luke, but he just wouldn’t talk to me. I’m his brother, I always get him to talk to me. He’s never had a problem with telling me things before. And he seemed so angry and sad and also a bit desperate ...”

“I’m not desperate,” Luke stated, sauntering into the kitchen and opening the fridge without looking at the other boys. “I realised that I’m an idiot, that’s all. Who wants breakfast?”

“Actually,” Calum said after a short moment of silence, “how about we go to the beach and have breakfast there? Just the three of us. We wanted to go anyway and it would be great if you joined us, Luke.” He felt sorry for his classmate and also a little bit guilty, so he figured that being nice to him was the least he could do.

“No thanks,” Luke answered before Ashton could even open his mouth. “I’m not going anywhere with people who trick me into spending my time with arseholes.”

“Look, I’m sorry,” Ashton sighed. “We shouldn’t have done that.”

Calum nodded. “Yeah. Mikey isn’t an arsehole though. Sure, he’s being stupid when it comes to you, but that’s exactly why we wanted the two of you to spend some time together. We thought that if you just got to know each other better, you’d get along eventually.”

Luke threw a disbelieving look at him. “You’re insane. That’s not going to happen.”

“You don’t know that, Lukey,” his brother told him and let out another sigh. “At least you could try.”

“Ash, stop. Just because you get along with everyone, you can’t expect me to do the same.”

“I don’t get along with everyone, that’s not true,” Ashton protested. “And I know you don’t like Michael, but he’s Calum’s best friend and it would be nice if we could spend some time together.”

“You know what?" Luke looked almost angry now. “It’s not my fault! I wasn’t the one who started this, so don’t you dare blame everything on me!”

“Um, guys,” Calum said, his eyes going wide, “I don’t want to interrupt but I think there’s someone at the front door. Someone who owns a key.”

“What?” Ashton shrieked.

“Oh,” Luke said completely unfazed, “then I guess you can explain to Mum and Dad why you and your boyfriend are standing in their kitchen _half-naked_.”

“But it can’t be them! They told us they wouldn’t be back until tomorrow!” Ashton’s face had gone slightly pale and his voice sounded almost hysterical.

Luke only shrugged before sipping at the orange juice he’d just pulled out of the fridge, and then they heard a female voice calling from the hallway, “Boys, are you here? We’re home!”

“We’re in the kitchen,” Luke shouted back, causing Ashton to glare at him like he wanted to murder him right then and there.

For a split second, Calum was actually tempted to climb out of the nearest window and run, but then he realised that, right, he was only wearing a pair of underwear – and not even his own, by the way. He couldn’t go home like this, it’d be way too much of an embarrassment.

“Hi Mum. Hi Dad,” Ashton said, paler than ever, when his parents appeared in the doorframe. “Why are you back so early?”

His mother let out a frustrated little sigh. “The hotel was awful, so we decided to come back this morning and spend the rest of the weekend on the beach instead. - Oh, who’s that?”

“Um,” Ashton replied, biting his lips.

Luke was suddenly grinning like a lunatic. Oh, he was so done with being the nice guy all the time! “That’s his boyfriend. You know, the one you wanted to get to know so badly.”

“Luke,” Ashton said in a warning tone but was being totally ignored.

“I’ll be upstairs,” Luke announced with an evil smirk on his face. Then he grabbed an apple and a half-eaten bar of chocolate and sauntered off.

His mother practically sprinted forward, nearly knocking him over and not even apologising for it since she was too focused on pulling Calum into a tight hug and almost squeezing him to death while squealing, “Calum, right?! I’m so happy to finally meet you, welcome to the family!”

“Muuum,” Ashton whined with a pained expression on his face. “Please, don’t.”

Luke stopped in the doorway and turned around. Nope, he definitely wasn’t done yet; revenge was so, so sweet. “Oh, Ash, why aren’t you telling them that the two of you wanted to go to the beach today? Maybe you can drive there together.”

“LUKE!” his brother all but screamed at him, causing him to let out a laugh and run upstairs.

“Really? That’s fantastic, we can’t wait to get to know you,” their mum exclaimed while releasing Calum from her arms and beaming at him so overly excited that Ashton couldn’t stop himself from groaning.

Calum honestly didn’t know whether to react with a laugh or die from embarrassment. Here he was, standing right in front of his boyfriend’s parents for the very first time and not wearing anything beside a tiny pair of underwear, and yet this woman was looking at him with a smile that could have caused world peace.

“Oh, I, um,” he began to stutter, throwing a helpless look at Ashton.

“We’ll think about it,” the older one came to his rescue and grabbed his arm. “Let’s go upstairs, Cal.”

His father, who hadn’t spoken a single word so far, just grinned at them. “Don’t think about it too loudly. You know how thin the walls in this house are.”

“Oh my God,” Ashton cried out. “I hate my life! Dad, stop being so embarrassing!”

“He’s right,” his mum agreed with him, “you haven’t even said hello to Calum, where are your manners?”

“Sorry,” her husband replied, still grinning but shaking Calum’s hand now, “nice to meet you, Calum.”

“Hi,” Calum managed to get out and then Ashton dragged him upstairs. Thank God.

“I am so sorry,” Ashton said as soon as he’d closed the door of his room behind them. “I have the most embarrassing parents in the entire world. Why are they doing this to me?”

“Well, it could’ve been worse. We were standing in their kitchen _half-naked_ , a lot of parents would’ve freaked out. Your parents were being pretty cool about it,” Calum pointed out and sat down on the edge of the bed.

“True,” Ashton had to admit, sitting down next to him and slinging an arm around his shoulder. “But still, it was embarrassing, and I’m sorry. I assume you don’t want to go to the beach now, and I totally agree with –“

“Actually,” Calum interrupted him with a shrug, “I guess it wouldn’t be too bad, Ash. I mean, you already met my parents nearly a week ago, so I wouldn’t mind getting to know yours. It only seems fair, don’t you think?”

Ashton felt a little smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Really?” When Calum nodded reassuringly, his smile grew even wider. “Alright, let’s do it. I just hope it’s not getting too awkward.”

Two hours later, when they were running into the water side by side, Ashton thought that the time in his parents’ car had been totally worth it. It was a fantastic day and they were going to have so much fun, he was sure about that. Calum thought so, too. He even managed to ignore the disapproving glances some of the people around them were giving them, because hey, he finally had a boyfriend – a damn cute boyfriend - and he wasn’t going to let anyone ruin his happiness!

But then, after hours of swimming and cuddling and sharing an endless amount of sweet kisses, they suddenly heard a deep voice behind them, “Ash, is that you?”

They both turned around and as soon as Ashton was facing the brown-haired, broad-shouldered guy, his whole face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Josh!” he exclaimed, already jumping forward, and was literally swept off his feet by the slightly taller boy.

Calum tried not to raise his eyebrows at that. He also tried not to be overwhelmed with jealousy, but to be completely honest, it didn’t really work. Who was that good looking guy? And why was he still hugging Ashton like both their lives depended on it? Calum didn’t like it. He didn’t like it _at all_.

“God, it’s been ages,” Ashton said when he finally freed himself from the tight embrace, still beaming so overly excited that Calum felt even more jealous. “How are you doing, Josh?”

“I’m doing great, what about you? Fuck, I really missed you,” Josh replied, pulling him into yet another hug.

Calum kind of wanted to punch him. Which probably wouldn’t be the best idea, considering the fact that this guy looked about ten times stronger than himself. So he just glared at him instead, but Josh didn’t even seem to notice him, being too busy smiling at Ashton as if he was the fucking sun.

He was, to be honest. But he was _Calum’s_ sun, goddammit!

“Um, Ash?” he murmured after what felt like an eternity, and Ashton finally seemed to realise that he wasn’t alone with his old friend – or whatever this Josh guy was.

“Oh, sorry,” he said, taking two steps back and wrapping his arm around Calum’s waist. “Josh, this is Calum. My, um, boyfriend.”

“Your boyfriend, huh?” Josh smirked and raised his hand to give a small wave. “Hi Calum, nice to meet you.”

“Hi,” Calum replied sceptically. This whole situation felt so awkward, it was ridiculous.

“Josh and I went to school together,” Ashton explained after a moment of silence. “And then his family moved to this part of the city last year, so we haven’t really seen each other in a while. - I’m still jealous you get to spend all your free time on the beach, you know,” he added towards Josh, letting out a little laugh.

Josh joined in his laughter without hesitation. “Oh, it’s awesome here. Listen, Ash, it was good to see you again, but I’ve gotta go now. Just … give me a call if you wanna hang out sometime?”

“Sure,” Ashton answered with a wide smile still plastered on his lips.

“Great. I know it’s not exactly a short drive here, but I promise it’ll be worth it,” Josh said, sending him an even wider smile in return before disappearing with a little wave of his hand.

Ashton stared after him and Calum desperately tried to stop himself from asking a certain question, but he didn’t succeed. “Were you dating him?” he just blurted out, immediately cursing himself for being so blunt about it.

“Um, we … not really.” Ashton cleared his throat and shrugged. “It was more a kind of friends with benefits thing. Nothing important, it only lasted for about two months, and then he moved away and we didn’t really keep in touch.”

“Two months,” Calum repeated slowly. He knew that he probably looked horrified right now, but he couldn’t help it. Ashton was his first boyfriend, after all, and probably so much more experienced than himself. What if he suddenly decided that he liked someone else better than Calum? Someone older and better looking, just like Josh …

“Well, there weren’t any feelings involved. Cal, are … are you alright?” Ashton asked with a worried expression on his face.

“Yeah, of course,” Calum mumbled and looked away.

“No, you’re not. You don’t look alright at all,” Ashton stated and pulled him into his arms. “What is it? Are you mad at me because I hugged Josh? It didn’t mean anything, I promise!”

“I don’t know,” Calum whispered, hiding his face in the crook of Ashton’s neck. “I’m just being stupid, I guess. I mean, you can hug whoever you want. I hug my friends, too, I know it doesn’t mean anything, but he … his voice sounded so flirty and he seemed interested in you, I just …”

“He’s not interested, Cal, he’s acting flirty with everyone,” Ashton interrupted him quickly and tightened his grip around his body. “And I’m not interested either, at least not anymore. I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, it was just nice to see him again. Do you trust me, Cal?”

“Of course I trust you,” Calum murmured against his skin. And really, he did. But nevertheless he couldn’t get completely rid of the little doubt in his stupid heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you like it? :)  
> I'll be uploading the next chapter in a week, on Tuesday or Wednesday. (It depends in which time zone you live.)


	15. Chapter 15

**15.**

“Dude,” Niall said incredulously, when Luke entered the classroom on Monday morning, and stared at him with wide eyes, “when the hell did you get a lip ring?”

“Oh my God,“ Liam nearly shouted before Luke was even able to answer. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Why?” Luke plopped down on his chair and turned towards his friends with a huge grin. “I think it looks badass.”

“It does,” Niall agreed, already seeming less disbelieving and even returning the grin instead. “You never mentioned that you wanted one though.”

“It was a spontaneous decision and luckily my parents let me do it. They were at the beach on Saturday and when they came back, we went to a friend of them who does piercings,” Luke explained while Liam was still looking at him like he’d gone completely mad.

“Okay, it’s official, your parents are awesome,” Niall declared, clapping him on the shoulder and then turning towards Liam. “What do you think, should I get one, too?”

“Definitely not,” Liam replied without hesitation and Niall looked almost disappointed.

“You might overthink that, Liam,” they suddenly heard a female voice, and only a few seconds later Lynn was standing in front of them and waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

“Why?” Liam asked with a confused look on his face.

“Because apparently it makes kissing even hotter, or at least that’s what I heard,” Calum said, suddenly appearing out of nowhere and throwing a knowing smirk straight in Luke’s direction. “I wonder who he got it for …”

Luke blushed so furiously that his whole face felt as if it was about to explode. “Nobody. Shut up.”

“Speaking of _shut up_ ,” Calum’s smirk grew even wider, “has anyone seen my best friend? He’s already five minutes late.”

Niall let out a barking laugh. “Dude, he’s always late. Nothing new there.”

Calum looked like he wanted to say something, but just then their teacher entered the classroom, and so he only shrugged and walked towards his seat. Everyone else was sitting down as well and their teacher was about to start the lesson, when suddenly the door swung open and a boy with bright blue hair appeared in the room.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said nonchalantly, not even bothering to sound apologetic in the slightest. 

Luke almost choked on air. Unfortunately, he did that very audibly and at least half of the class turned around to look at him with raised eyebrows - including Calum, whose smirk threatened to split his face in half. Luke was a little tempted to crawl underneath his table and stay there until graduation, but instead he just blushed furiously for the second time in less than five minutes and tried not to look too embarrassed.

“Michael, please sit down,” the teacher sighed, clearly not being impressed by his appearance at all.

“Sure,” he shrugged without so much as glancing at the other students, and it almost seemed as if he hadn’t even noticed the little incident. However, Luke didn’t miss the small twitch of his lips, and for some reason it made a wave of anger bubble up inside him.

At the same time he had to fight down the urge to rise from his chair, march across the room and kiss the hell out of that stupid blue-haired idiot. God, this wasn’t fair. Why did he still want to kiss him? He wasn’t supposed to want that, not after Michael had left without saying a word or at least leaving a note on Saturday morning!

This whole situation was so fucked up. He shouldn’t have kissed him in the first place, not to mention all the other things they’d done together, but now it was too late and Luke regretted it so much. It had probably been Michael’s plan all along to make him feel bad about himself once again, and now everything was even worse than before. Luke obviously had no other choice than to ignore him for the rest of his life, and to be completely honest he’d decided to get that lip ring only for the sake of his own self-confidence. He knew it looked good and that was exactly what he needed right now.

The problem was that Michael’s new hair colour looked pretty fucking great as well and Luke just couldn’t stop himself from staring at him during class. It was distracting him so extremely that he didn’t hear a single word his teachers were saying, not even when they were addressing their questions directly to him, and by the time everyone was leaving for lunch he felt like a complete mess.

“Luke? Are you alright?” Liam asked with a concerned expression on his face.

“Mhmm. What? Yeah, sure.”

“You don’t look alright,” Liam pointed out while they were heading for the door.

“Come on, leave the poor boy alone,” Niall said, grinning from ear to ear and tugging at Liam’s sleeve. “He’s just a bit confused, I think. Don’t bother him with too many questions, that wouldn’t be hair … I mean fair. By the way, Luke, I like your shirt. I mean, it’s blue. Blue is such a nice colour, don’t you agree?”

Luke blushed for what felt like the hundredth time today and nearly bumped his shoulder into the doorframe. “Shut up, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You might want to save your insults for _someone else_ ,” Niall replied, not even sounding offended in the slightest, and raised his eyebrows at him.

While Luke was blushing even further, Liam let out a soft chuckle. “Very subtle, Nialler. Come on, guys, hurry up, I’m hungry.”

“Heey, I’m supposed to say that,” Niall protested with a laugh, intertwining their fingers and dragging him towards the cafeteria. For a few seconds, Luke was tempted to turn around and look for a quiet place where he could spend the lunch break alone, but then he followed them with a deep sigh.

Five minutes later he was already regretting that decision. The food was awful and even Niall pushed his tray away after a few hesitant bites. “I guess I’ll just have my very special and very yummy dessert then,” he announced with a big grin and only a few seconds later he was climbing onto Liam’s lap and pressing their lips together.

Luke let out an annoyed groan. “I hate you both.”

“Why, are you jealous?” Calum, who was approaching them in that very moment, looked at him so knowingly that Luke’s face immediately heated up again. “You don’t mind us sitting with you guys, do you?” Calum then added in a way too innocent voice.

“Nope,” Niall said between nibbling at Liam’s earlobe and mercilessly attacking his neck.

“Great,” Calum replied, putting his tray onto the table and sitting down. His best friend, who’d been standing behind him, took the seat next to him without hesitation. Luke wanted to protest, but he knew it would have sounded completely stupid, so he chose to remain silent and keep his gaze fixed on the table.

“Why aren’t you guys eating?” Michael suddenly asked, causing Luke to look at him within half a second. Dammit, the effect he had on him was almost frightening.

Calum let out a chuckle and pointed at the snogging couple. “I guess these two have something better to do. But what about you, Luke?”

Luke shrugged and went back to staring down at the table. “It tastes awful.”

Only two seconds later Calum spat his first mouthful spaghetti back onto the plate and looked as if he was about to vomit. “Yeah, you’re right, that’s horrible.”

“Told you.”

“I can’t believe this. We should sue this goddamn school,” Calum grumbled while rising from his chair and rummaging through his pockets.

“What are you doing?” Michael asked, eying his plate sceptically. Apparently he was still considering whether to try his food or not.

“I’m not eating this garbage, I want a sandwich, but I don’t have any money left.”

“Here,” Michael said, passing him a ten dollar note. “Buy one for me, too.”

“Okay, thanks. But if you think I’m gonna stop asking you questions about your black eye, you’re wrong. I still want to know what happened.” And then Calum was gone and Luke’s first instinct was to jump to his feet and follow him, because escaping from the table seemed so much more tempting than staying here with nobody but Michael – sure, Liam and Niall were still there, but given the fact that they were snogging each other’s faces off they didn’t really count. However, for some reason he couldn’t move, his whole body seemed completely frozen …

“So, Luke … you got a piercing?”

Luke resisted the urge to let his lips break into a small triumphant smile. “Yeah.”

“It looks good.” Michael’s voice sounded a bit unsure and Luke could practically feel his own self-confidence skyrocket. Which was definitely a first in Michael’s presence.

“I know,” he said, lifting his head and allowing himself to look at him for a few seconds. Fuck, despite his black eye Michael looked good, too.

“No, I mean … _really_ good. Does it still, um, hurt?”

Luke turned his head slightly away. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.” God, he had to get away from him as soon as possible. Mostly because Michael’s voice was so soft and his bright green eyes were so, so pretty.

“Oh,” Michael mumbled after a moment of silence and now his voice sounded almost broken. Luke tried not to feel guilty about it, he really did, but of fucking course he failed miserably.

 _“No, don’t feel guilty,”_ he heard a devilish whisper inside his head. _“He doesn’t deserve any better. He_ left _, remember? He’s a stupid twat - and besides, he doesn’t even like you. He never did, and he never will!”_

 _“Yeah but he defended you, remember?”,_ another voice retorted.

_“Oh please, that didn’t mean anything. He did that because he’s an idiot who’s always up for a fight!”_

_“That’s bullshit. Luke, you enjoyed cuddling with him, don’t forget that. The two of you had a magic moment going on there.”_

_“Oh really? What about the past, Luke? What about all the times he tried to embarrass you, make you feel bad and ruin your whole life?”_

_“People can change.”_

_“Not Michael Clifford. He’s an idiot who happens to be a great kisser. So what?”_

_“He’s more than that.”_

_“No, he’s not. He was awful to you, Luke. Even if you wanted, you could never trust him properly. You’d always have these doubts in the back of your head.”_

Somehow Luke managed to fight back a desperate groan. The voices in his head were driving him absolutely crazy and he had no idea how to make them stop. This wasn’t fair. What was he supposed to believe? They both had a point there …

“Hey, I’m back,” Calum said, looking back and forth between them with a smirk and then waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Michael shrugged. “Great. Where’s the change?”

“There was no change. I thought the others might be hungry, too, so I got sandwiches for all of us. Here, help yourselves.”

“Are you kidding me? It was _my_ money, you could have asked first!”

Calum rolled his eyes. “Oh come on, don’t be stingy.”

“I’m not, but … whatever,” Michael grumbled and reached for one of the sandwiches while flashing Luke a quick glance.

Luke cleared his throat. “I totally forgot that I, uh, have to make a phone call. See you.” And without even waiting for an answer, he jumped to his feet and rushed out of the cafeteria. His escape probably seemed ridiculous, but he couldn’t deal with being in Michael’s presence right now.

Luckily, Michael didn’t show up to school during the next two days – according to Calum he had to stay home because he was sick. When he came back on Thursday, he walked straight up to Luke as soon as he’d entered the hallway and looked at him with a challenging expression in his piercing green eyes.

“We need to talk,” he said loudly, totally ignoring the fact that Luke was surrounded by his friends, and raised his pierced eyebrow at him. “ _Now_.” 

Luke had to hold his breath for a moment, because _damn_ , those eyes were fucking intense. Next to him, Niall and Liam both failed to suppress a quiet laugh, and Lynn wasn’t even trying. “We’ll see you in class,” she chuckled with a big grin on her face, giving him a pat on the back and then dragging Liam and Niall away. Luke wanted nothing more than to follow them, but once again his whole body seemed frozen. Fuck.

“I’m not talking to you,” he mumbled before Michael could even open his mouth. “Leave me alone.”

Michael didn’t even hesitate to shake his head. “No, Luke, that’s not going to happen. Listen, I want to-”

“I don’t care what you want, Michael! Fuck off!” Luke all but shouted at him before slamming his locker door shut and storming off. He knew he was being stupid but he couldn’t help it - he still didn’t know how to handle this whole situation between them and it was driving him absolutely crazy.

Plus, he was quite sure that he would have kissed him right then and there if he’d looked into those pretty green eyes any longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So ... what do you guys think? Did you like it? Please leave comments and kudos! :)


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Thanks for your comments, they always make my day. Oh, and thanks for leaving kudos, too! :)
> 
> So, here's the new chapter. Enjoy!

**16.**

Two days later, Luke was absolutely sure that he’d never been more stressed out in his entire life. He couldn’t stop thinking about Michael, and the fact that this idiot kept staring at him whenever they were in the same room together wasn’t helpful at all.

“Morning dear,” Luke’s mum said when he entered the kitchen on Saturday morning. “You look like you didn’t even sleep.”

Luke gave a shrug, followed by a yawn. “I didn’t.”

“Oh honey, I’m sorry to hear that. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Luke lied, not even trying to sound convincing, and opened the fridge. “Wasn’t tired enough, I guess.”

The way his mother looked at him made it clear that she was really concerned. “Are you sure? You seem upset, Luke. Did something bad happen? Do you want to talk about it?”

“No! I mean, no, I’m not upset. I’m totally fine, Mum.”

“Okay,” she replied after a few seconds. Luke knew that she didn’t believe him and he almost felt guilty for lying to her, but he just couldn’t tell her about all the things that had been on his mind for days now. No, telling her that he’d cuddled and laughed and made out with the boy he’d always complained about – and that he had _liked_ it! – was definitely not an option. He would never be hearing the end of it.

“Good morning, beloved family,” Ashton interrupted the awkward silence by coming in and plopping down on a chair. He was humming some stupid love song that Luke only faintly recognised, and a big smile was plastered on his face. It was awful.

“Morning sunshine,” their mum smiled back at him and reached forward to ruffle his hair.

Instead of protesting like he usually did, Ashton just smiled even wider. It wasn’t until he realised Luke was glaring at him that his smile disappeared, being replaced with a little frown. “What?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

Luke rolled his eyes. “Stop being so madly in love.”

“I can’t,” Ashton said with a shrug and his frown deepened a bit. “Why would you even want that?”

“He’s right, Luke. You should be happy for your brother,” their mum scolded with a disapproving glance.

Now Luke definitely felt guilty. “I know,” he mumbled, helplessly biting his lips, “I’m sorry, I’m trying to, but … why does it have to be _Calum_?!”

Their mum didn’t know. She had no idea that Calum went to school with Luke and that his best friend was the guy who’d made Luke’s life a living hell for as long as he could think. Maybe it was time to let her know …

“Why not Calum?” she asked before Ashton could even open his mouth. “He seemed like a nice guy to me.”

“I know,” Luke replied with a groan. “Calum’s not the problem. His best friend is.”

Now it was Ashton’s turn to roll his eyes. “It’s not my fault that you and Michael can’t stand each other. And it isn’t Cal’s fault either.”

“Wait,” their mum said confused. “Michael as in _Michael Clifford_?”

“Exactly,” Luke grumbled.

“Oh. He’s Calum’s best friend? You never mentioned Calum, I had no idea you already knew him.”

“That’s because _Calum_ never tried to ruin my life. He’s alright, I guess,” Luke had to admit.

“Well, then stop acting like he’s an idiot. He’s not. And I really like him … a lot,” Ashton confessed, blushing a little.

“You heard him,” their mum nodded in Luke’s direction.

Luke let out a sigh. “I’m sorry. It’s just … I mean, you could have picked anyone, really, there are so many nice people out there …”

Suddenly a knowing smirk appeared on Ashton’s face. “Would you rather I picked _Michael_?”

“NO!” Luke all but shouted at him. “I said _someone nice_ ,” he added quickly when he saw that the knowing smirk on Ashton’s face grew even wider.

“Then stop complaining about me dating Cal. – By the way, he’s coming over in an hour, and he’s bringing Lily with him. Is that alright, Mum?”

“Who’s Lily? Oh, right, the little girl you told me about. Sure, if her parents don’t mind. Your father and I won’t be home though. We’ll be leaving in thirty minutes and won’t be back until tonight.”

“Another trip to the beach?” Luke wanted to know while munching on his toast.

“Yes, do you want to come with us?”

Luke shook his head. “Thanks but I already have plans. Niall invited me over, he wants to study for that math test next week.”

“Since when are you actually studying when you’re with your friends?” Ashton teased him without hesitation.

Luke decided to stick his tongue out at him in return. “Very funny, Ash. You should be happy that I’m giving you the opportunity to be alone with your boyfriend.”

“Whatever you’re trying to imply, you’re wrong. We are babysitting!”

“Sure you are.”

“I’m serious! We’re not snogging in front of an eight-year-old!”

Luke barked out a laugh. “I’m just kidding, Ash. I guess today you’re only banging your drums then …”

“Shut up,” Ashton said and was very obviously trying not to blush. He failed, of course. “Besides, I don’t think you’re in the right position to laugh at me. Or did I miss something?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, as far as I know you’re not going to snog anyone either,” Ashton explained with a challenging look in his eyes, and for a second or two Luke was almost sure that all the events from the past weeks had to be written on his forehead for everyone to see.

“So what?” he shot back. His face was slowly beginning to burn, which was why he didn’t even wait for an answer. “It’s not like I _want_ to make out with someone, unlike you,” he added while already heading for the door and nearly stumbling over his own feet in an attempt to escape this situation.

“Oh _really_ ,” Ashton said, sounding smug as fuck, and their mother chose this very moment to intervene again, “What about that love bite I saw on your neck two weeks ago?”

Luke almost crashed against the doorframe. Fuck, why did she have to bring that up again?! “I don’t know what you’re talking about! It wasn’t a love bite!” he spluttered out while spinning around and staring at them with wide eyes. He probably looked like a deer caught in the headlight; at least he felt like passing out any minute.

Meanwhile, Ashton was loudly gasping for air. “Mum! He had a love bite and you didn’t tell me?!”

“It wasn’t a love bite!” Luke repeated weakly.

His mother actually had the nerve to _wink_. “It totally was. And now I’m getting ready for a day on the beach,” she told them as though nothing had happened and disappeared upstairs.

Luke wanted to follow her and lock himself into his room until it was time for him to leave the house. However, Ashton had other plans.

“Not so fast, dear brother. Sit down, let’s talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about, Ash. Leave me alone.”

“Oh come on,” Ashton said, a mischievous glint already becoming visible in his eyes, “we used to talk about everything, remember? Just spill it, where did that love bite come from?”

Luke gave up. He wasn’t willing to tell him the full truth though, so he just shrugged and mumbled, “Some guy kissed me at that party, no big deal. I don’t know him. And no, I don’t want to get to know him. Are we done now?”

“Are you sure you don’t know him?” Ashton asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “Look, obviously you don’t owe me an explanation or anything, but I might be able to help … What if I told you that I spoke to a guy who was very, very drunk and despite the fact that he’d been making out with a girl on the dance floor couldn’t seem to stop thinking about some mysterious boy - who I believe is you?”

Luke’s eyes widened comically. “What are you talking about, Ash?”

“Okay,” Ashton sighed, grabbing his arm and pushing him towards the kitchen table. “Now sit down and listen. Before Cal and I made sure that Michael got home safely, Cal told me that he’d never seen him that drunk before.”

Luke tried his best to look as unimpressed as possible. “So?”

“In his very drunken state Michael complained that he couldn’t find someone he’d obviously been looking for at the party. Cal seemed quite sure that he was talking about _you_ …”

“What?” Luke’s eyes seemed to nearly pop out of his head. „Why would he think that?!“

“You tell me,” Ashton replied carefully. “I mean, Cal was absolutely right when he told me that there’s an undeniable sexual tension between you and Michael, so maybe you –“

“What?” Luke repeated, this time with a downright horrified expression on his face.

“Lukey, don’t be ridiculous. It’s true, I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Do you think I’m stupid? You guys don’t really hate each other, I mean, I’ve seen the way you are acting around each other, and there’s definitely no –“

“We kissed,” Luke suddenly blurted out. As soon as the words had left his mouth, his eyes widened in shock and he bit his tongue. Fuck, why the hell did he just tell him that?!?

For what felt like an endless amount of time, Ashton remained silent and just kept looking at him with an unreadable expression in his eyes. However, when Luke was about to flee from this whole situation and accept the fact that he’d just managed to ruin his own life all by himself, Ashton finally opened his mouth.

“You know what, I’m not even surprised. It happened at the party, am I right? But why did you just leave him there? He clearly wasn’t happy about that, Luke. You should have seen him, he was so incredibly drunk and whiny and he seemed to miss you! And why on earth are you still pretending not to like him?”

Luke let out an almost hysterical laugh. “Stop, Ash. I’m not pretending anything, I really don’t like him – and he doesn’t like me either! It was an accident, we were fighting and then kind of crashed together, and … and then we … well, yeah, we kissed, but we were both drunk and didn’t know what we were doing, and –“

“I don’t believe you, Lukey,” Ashton interrupted his flood of words, raising an eyebrow at him and curving his lips into a knowing smirk at the same time. “You left the party after an hour or so, therefore you had to be at least a little bit sober when that _accident_ happened. You’re not Liam, you don’t get drunk after two beers. And I don’t think Michael does either.”

“Oh shut up,” Luke murmured. His face was burning and it probably wasn’t going to stop doing that anytime soon.

“Your face looks like it’s about to explode,” Ashton informed him with a soft chuckle. “Come on, I know you want to talk about it. I’m your brother, you can trust me.”

Luke wasn’t very convinced. “You’re dating Calum,“ he pointed out. “You’re probably going to tell him everything as soon as I -”

“Woah, hold on. Do you really think I’m telling him your secrets? No way, Luke, I’m not doing that. I promise.”

“Fine,” Luke said after a moment of silence, “I’m going to tell you, but not now.”

“Why not?”

“Because I have to get ready for my utterly productive study group. I don’t want to be late, and I still have to shower and stuff. See you later!”

“Luke, wait.” Ashton took a step towards him and pulled him into his arms, and Luke smiled against his neck. Maybe a hug was exactly what he needed right now, and his older brother just seemed to know it.

Half an hour later, when Luke was ready to leave the house, he got a call from Niall. “I’m sorry mate, I should’ve called you earlier. We can’t study today, I have to take care of Liam.”

Even though Niall couldn’t see it, Luke raised an eyebrow. “What kind of _taking care_ are we talking about here?”

At the other end of the line, Niall barked out a laugh. Only two seconds later, it was followed by a deep sigh. “Look, I’m really sorry, I know this test next week is important, but Liam got really drunk at his cousin’s party last night and then spent the whole night puking. I swear, it’s never been that bad before, he still looks like a ghost.”

“What about his parents?”

“They’re not home today. Someone has to stay with him, just in case it gets even worse. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Luke assured him. “We can still study on Monday after school, yeah?”

“Sure. Thanks man, see you on Monday!”

Fighting back a sigh, Luke put his phone away and sat down on his bed. Great, now he was stuck here with Ashton, Calum and that little girl he didn’t even know. Sure, he could go shopping or see a movie, but he really didn’t want to spend the day alone. And he knew that Lynn wasn’t home for the weekend, so calling her wasn’t an option either.

“What are you still doing here?” Ashton asked as soon as Luke entered the living room a few minutes later. “Not that I mind,” he added quickly. A bit too quickly, Luke noticed.

“I’m staying here. Liam had too much to drink last night and Niall’s taking care of him now.”

Suddenly Ashton seemed to tense up. “Oh.”

Luke flashed him a suspicious glance. “Is that a problem? I thought you were just going to babysit.”

“We are. It’s just, uh. You could call Mum and Dad, they only left ten minutes ago, so maybe they could come back and take you with them? I’m sure you’d rather spend the day on the beach than here with, um, well … us.”

“Not really. Why are you acting so weird?”

Ashton cleared his throat. “I talked to Cal twenty minutes ago. He, um, asked me something … I mean, you told me you were leaving, so I didn’t think it would be a problem!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Luke asked, looking at him confused and sceptically at the same time. But before his brother could give him an answer, the doorbell was ringing and Ashton bolted out of the room.

Luke, still wanting to know what was going on, quickly decided to follow him and demand an explanation from him. “Ash!” he shouted, sprinting after him. “I want to know what –“

The rest of his words died in his throat when he saw three people enter the house, two of them practically throwing themselves at Ashton with sparkling eyes and squealing in unison. Luke didn’t even look at them, being too busy staring at the third person with wide eyes and a wild flutter in his stomach, and for a second or two the world actually seemed to stand still.

“Sorry Ash, we’re a bit early,” Calum said, pressing a quick kiss to his boyfriend’s cheek and ruffling the little girl’s blond hair. “Lily was just so excited to see you again, she couldn’t wait any longer. Thanks for letting Michael come with us, by the way. He wouldn’t stop complaining about me spending more time with you than with him, so I promised him to – _oh shit_. I thought Luke wanted to meet with his friends?!”

“Well, he changed his mind,” Ashton replied and audibly cleared his throat. “I had no idea, he told me only a minute ago.”

Luke was still standing two metres behind him, trying his best to stop staring at Michael - and miserably failing. He just couldn’t break away from those deep green eyes and plumb pink lips, and it took him a few seconds to realise that Michael was staring at him as well. For some reason, this made Luke blush so furiously that he instantly wished for the ground to open and swallow him up.

Again, Ashton cleared his throat. “Come on, let’s go to my room. I mean, only if you don’t insist on staying here to keep staring at my brother.”

Calum barked out a laugh. “Well, I’m not so sure about _him_ ,” he said bluntly while pointing at Michael, and that was all it took for Michael to break the eye contact between him and Luke and march up the stairs.

Luke turned around and rushed back into the living room. Spending the day somewhere in the city all by himself suddenly sounded way more tempting than before, because there was _no way_ he was going to stay here now. Not with Michael being here as well. Nope, that was so not going to happen.

“Hey. You’re Luke, right? I’m Lily,” he heard a voice behind him, and when he turned around he found the little girl standing there and smiling at him.

He nodded. “Yeah, I’m Luke. Nice to meet you, Lily.”

“I think I like you,” she told him, smiling at him even wider now. “Can you come upstairs with us, Luke? Pleeease?”

He wanted to say no, he really did. But looking at this little angel with soft blond hair and that beautiful smile on her happily glowing face, he just couldn’t bring himself to reject her wish.

“Sure,” he mumbled while trying not to think about Michael being upstairs as well. This was going to be a disaster, he knew it, but apparently he didn’t have another choice.

“Great!” Lily was beaming at him now and excitedly bouncing towards him to grab his hand and drag him out of the room. For a split second, Luke’s lips were curving into a small smile and he decided that, yes, he definitely liked the little sunshine, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you think? I'm looking forward to your comments, they always make me so happy. :)
> 
> Please follow me on [tumblr](http://throwinrocksatmukeswindow.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/Leo_111188) if you like. xx


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Here's the new chapter, enjoy! :)

**17.**

Luke had never felt so nervous in his whole life, he was sure about it. He wanted nothing more than to leave his brother’s room as soon as he and Lily had entered it – and if Michael’s murderous glare was anything to go by, he wanted him gone as well.

“Wow,” Calum said with a knowing smirk on his face, “did Lily convince you to spend some time with us?”

Luke shrugged, sitting down on Ashton’s bed and sending Lily a small smile. “I bet you couldn’t have said no either, Calum.”

“Oh, trust me, I can say no to her. I have to do it all the time.” Calum let out a chuckle while taking a step towards Lily and ruffling her blond hair. “She might look like an angel but she doesn’t always behave like one.”

“I don’t _want_ to be an angel. It’s boring,” Lily stated resolutely, sticking her tongue out at him, and on the other side of the room Michael barked out a loud laugh. “What?” she asked, turning towards him with a little frown. “Don’t you agree?”

His lips were curving into a wide grin. “Oh, absolutely.” 

“Shut up, Mikey,” Calum groaned. “We all know that you have no manners, but don’t you dare encourage Lily to act like you do!”

Michael rolled his eyes. “Alright, so you want her to become boring. I guess I’m the wrong person to teach her anything about life then, but why don’t you ask Luke here to do it?”

Luke was about to rise from the mattress and punch that idiot straight in the face, but unfortunately Calum’s reaction was faster. “Woah, hold on, Mikey. When did _Hemmings_ become _Luke_?” he wanted to know and raised an eyebrow at his best friend.

For some reason, it was Luke who blushed furiously after hearing that question. Michael, however, didn’t even bat an eyelid. “Well, I wanted to make sure Lily could understand who I was talking about.”

Calum didn’t seem very convinced. “She knows his full name. Remember that day when she told you to be nice to everyone?”

“Everyone except Maddie from my school,” Lily chirped in.

Calum ignored that comment. “Come on, Mikey. You don’t have to be a saint to be nice to people. Why is that so hard for you to understand?”

“Well,” Michael shrugged, “I can be nice if, you know, someone is worth it.”

Suddenly Luke’s heart felt way too heavy in his chest. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, but that really hurt. It wasn’t supposed to, but it did. “How about you shut your damn mouth?” he huffed out, sounding so offended that Ashton and Calum threw an awfully knowing look at him.

“Guys, can you not fight for once?” Ashton then sighed after a few seconds of silence. “We just wanted to spend a peaceful day together.”

“You shouldn’t have let him in then,” Luke told him, ready to get up from the bed and escape to his own room, but Lily seemed to have other plans.

“I like each of you,” she announced, hopping onto Luke’s lap and starting to poke him in the ribs with a bright smile on her face.

“Heeey,” he giggled while trying to stop her, but her hands were moving too quickly.

“Are you ticklish?” she laughed, earning only more giggles in response.

“Alright then,” Ashton said with a grin, “looks like I can leave you guys alone for a minute and get us some snacks. I’ll be right back.”

“He might need some help,” Calum decided as soon as Ashton was gone. “Please behave,” he added, not even bothering to look at Lily but raising an eyebrow at Michael instead. “No fighting, I’m begging you.”

Michael, obviously pretending not to listen, scrambled to his feet and walked towards the drum kit that was set in the corner of the room. Before he could even attempt to sit down on the stool, Luke – who had finally managed to stop Lily from tickling him – opened his mouth, “Don’t even think about it! Ash’s going to kill you!”

“Don’t tell me what to do, _Hemmings_ , “ Michael replied without so much as glancing at him, causing Luke to feel a hot wave of anger bubble up inside him.

“Fine, _Clifford_ ,” he spat at him, ignoring Calum’s knowing look and shoving Lily off his lap as carefully as possible, “you know what, arsehole? Don’t even try to talk to me ever again!”

“Guys,” Calum groaned with a pained expression on his face. “Please, stop.”

“Why are they fighting?” Luke heard Lily ask as he was storming out of the room, and he almost felt a bit guilty for losing it in front of the little girl. It wasn’t her fault that Michael was such an idiot – well, _Clifford_ , because apparently he had to go back to calling him that now. The only problem was that Luke had gotten so used to thinking of him as _Michael_ \- even though he still hated him – that everything else sounded just wrong in his head.

As soon as he reached his own room, he bolted through the door and slammed it shut. He was so, so mad – at Michael simply for existing, at Calum for bringing him over, and especially at himself for allowing his stupid heart to feel kind of hurt. One thing was for sure: He wouldn’t speak to that idiot ever again. Definitely not.

“Luke?” Lily said, opening the door without even bothering to knock first, and looked at him with a small smile on her lips. “Cal told me you play the guitar. I’d love to hear you play.”

“Really?” Luke asked surprised.

“Really,” she nodded, her smile growing wider.

“Oh. Okay. I can play a few songs then, I guess,” he replied, sitting down on his bed with his guitar and motioning for her to come over.

“Maybe one day you can teach me how to play,” she chuckled while plopping down next to him. “But first I want to become an awesome drummer, just like your brother.”

Luke’s lips broke into a smile. “He’s really good,” he agreed.

“Why aren’t you guys starting a band then?” Lily suggested. “I heard the others talk about it, they love the idea. You should totally join them.”

Luke shook his head. “I can’t. They wouldn’t want me to be in a band with them anyway. Well, except for Ash, he probably wouldn’t mind.”

“Don’t say that,” Lily protested. “I’m sure everyone would want to be in a band with you.”

“That’s very sweet of you,” Luke replied with a soft laugh, “but I don’t think so. If you want to start a band with other people, you have to like them.”

Lily looked like she was about to protest again, but then remained silent as Luke began to strum a few chords. By the time he had finished tuning his guitar and started playing the first song that came to his mind, she was beaming at him like he’d hung the moon.

“That sounds beautiful! I don’t know that song though, can you sing it for me? Please?”

Luke felt himself blush a little. “Um, I can’t sing very well.”

“I don’t believe you. Your brother has an amazing voice and I’m sure yours is great, too!” Now she was actually starting to pout. “Pleeease, Luke. I thought you couldn’t say no to me?”

Luke barked out a laugh. Damn it, she was right. “Fine, I’ll do it.”

“Thanks,” she chuckled, now grinning at him so innocently that he couldn’t stop himself from letting out another laugh.

“Alright, here we go. It’s a song from Katy Perry and it’s called _Teenage Dream_ ,” he explained before starting to play again.

“I knew it! I knew you could sing!” she exclaimed triumphantly as soon as she’d heard the first couple words from his mouth, and as he laughed once again he almost missed the next line.

His first real blunder, however, he didn’t make until the very end of the song, and it was all Michael’s fault. Suddenly Luke saw him standing at the open door and staring at him with wide green eyes, and at that moment Luke forgot how to sing and the last words of the song died somewhere in his throat.

“Oh, hi Michael,” Lily said happily and waved him in.

He didn’t move though. “That, um …” He cleared his throat, still keeping his gaze fixed on Luke’s eyes, and Luke’s stupid heart did a backflip in his chest. “That was … incredible.”

Wait, what?

Lily started to giggle. “Hey, are you actually being nice to him?”

“I guess I am,” Michael replied after a short moment of silence and cleared his throat again.

Luke couldn’t believe his ears. “Oh, wow,” he said in the most sarcastic voice ever and carefully put his guitar on the floor, “what now, do you expect an award or something?”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Are boys always this stupid? Because you two definitely are.”

“Heey,” Luke complained, totally ignoring the fact that he sounded like a four-year-old, “I’m not!”

“Yes you are,” Lily insisted while scrambling to her feet and walking towards the door. “Maybe not all the time, but right now you guys are being very stupid. Just admit that you like each other and stop pretending otherwise.”

“We don’t like each other!” Michael called after her, a light blush becoming visible on his cheeks.

“Stop lying to yourselves! Both of you!” she shouted back while already bolting down the stairs, and Luke’s face heated up within a split second. He was pretty sure that it was just as red as Michael’s now, and suddenly he found himself thinking that the blue-haired boy actually looked really cute with his rosy cheeks and that almost embarrassed look on his face.

Fuck. He wasn’t supposed to think that. Michael Clifford was not cute. He was loud and mean and annoying and –

“So,” Michael said, clearing his throat for the third time in less than two minutes, “I, um, like … your guitar. Where did you buy it?”

Luke shrugged. “My dad bought it for me.”

“Oh. Okay. Well, it’s beautiful,” Michael mumbled, now slowly stepping closer.

“Thanks,” Luke replied, and then he had to hold his breath for a moment because Michael was sitting down right next to him and staring at him with his big green eyes, and suddenly Luke wanted nothing more than to lean forward and capture his pretty pink lips with his own.

Michael looked like this was exactly what he wanted, too. “Luke,” he whispered hoarsely while scooting even closer, “your piercing, it looks so good on you, so fucking good. Shit, it’s driving me crazy, I can’t stop thinking about it …”

Luke’s eyes almost fluttered shut. All of a sudden, he was feeling slightly dizzy and his heart seemed to be beating a mile a minute. Fuck, this situation was getting out of control, he knew it, but there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. As much as he wanted to jump to his feet and get as far away from him as possible, he just couldn’t do it.

“You look _so good_.” Michael’s voice was shaking a little, and Luke suddenly realised that there were only a few inches left between them. Michael was close, too close, but at the same time he still seemed too far away.

“Stop,” Luke managed to get out. “Stop saying that, you can’t just –“

“Luke,” Michael interrupted him, his voice shaking even more now, and he’d never sounded more serious in Luke’s presence ever before. “Please, can I … can I kiss you?”

Luke made a small noise in the back of his throat. The fact that Michael was actually asking him for permission instead of just going for it like he usually did, made his stupid heart beat even faster for some reason.

“No,” he heard himself whisper. “No, no, no.”

Michael’s breath hitched in his throat. “Please.”

“No,” Luke repeated weakly. God, he wanted to kiss him so, so badly. But he couldn’t. They weren’t even alone in the house, for fuck’s sake!

“Luke. Please. I’m begging you.” At this point, Michael’s voice sounded almost broken and the way he was looking at him had never been more intense. It was scary and beautiful at the same time and Luke felt so overwhelmed that it took him a moment to catch his breath.

Then he shook his head, a disbelieving laugh escaping his throat. “Michael. You can’t just treat me like shit and then just … just …” He couldn’t find the words he was looking for, so he only stared at him helplessly for a few seconds and tried to ignore the fact that his heart was pounding heavily in his chest.

Michael was staring back with wide green eyes. For a second or two, Luke thought that he looked as though he was willing to reach for both their hearts and keep them save forever, and this thought sent a bunch of shivers all over Luke’s body. Michael’s eyes looked like an unspoken promise - a promise that was nearly impossible to understand, but would be absolutely worth it in the end …

“Oh fuck it,” Luke said breathlessly, grabbing Michael’s face and closing the distance between them without further hesitation, and then they were pressing their lips together and it felt as if the first part of that unspoken promise had just become real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo ... did you like it? ;)


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much guys, I love you for leaving all those wonderful comments! Enjoy the new chapter! :)

**18.**

Kissing Michael felt so fucking fantastic. In fact, Luke thought that there was probably nothing in this world that came even close to the absolutely incredible feeling he was experiencing right now. Their lips were moving against each other so gently as if they were destined to be together, and even though they’d kissed plenty of times by now, Luke was pretty sure that it’d never felt _that_ good before.

His hands were still lingering on Michael’s cheeks and after a few seconds he felt Michael’s hands come up and clench into the front of his shirt, yanking him even closer towards him – although that really wasn’t possible anymore, because their bodies were practically melting into each other already. It was definitely the best feeling in the world and Luke wanted nothing more than to freeze this moment and stay like this forever.

Then he realised that his piercing was being pulled between Michael’s lips and a tiny sound of pleasure escaped both their throats. “Fuck,” Michael whimpered against his lips and only seconds later Luke was on his back, sprawled out on the bed and somewhat helplessly staring up at Michael’s face.

“Fuck,” Michael repeated with wide eyes. He looked just as wrecked as Luke felt and they were both desperately trying to catch their breaths, just like after a heavy make out session – only that this time they’d been kissing for less than a minute and there hadn’t even been any tongue action involved so far.

“Yeah,” Luke whispered, his hands darting up to Michael’s neck and pulling him down. “Do that again,” he all but pleaded while burying his hands in the soft blue hair, a light blush becoming visible on his cheeks. “Please.”

Michael’s lips curved into a little smirk. “So … you liked it?”

“Shut up,” Luke said, wrapping his legs around Michael’s hips and earning a small moan in response. “Shut the fuck up and kiss me, Michael.”

“Okay,” the older boy whispered back before leaning down and pressing a gentle kiss to the corner of his mouth.

Luke could feel him smile against his lips and for some reason this made his heart beat even faster. His grip around the strands of hair tightened, causing Michael to let out another quiet moan and slide their lips together properly now, and suddenly Luke’s entire body seemed to be on fire.

Fuck, this was _so good_.

“Luke,” Michael murmured after what felt like an eternity, releasing his tongue from Luke’s mouth and pressing sweet kisses all over his heated face instead, “you … you’re perfect …”

Luke’s eyes widened in disbelief and his heart almost seemed to skip a beat. Why the hell was Michael saying that? Was he trying to make fun of him again? He probably was ... But then again, would he actually kiss him like that if it was only a big joke to him?!

Luke was about to open his mouth and confront him with his thoughts, when suddenly he heard loud footsteps and roaring laughter from the stairs. Shit, he’d totally forgotten about the others!

“Michael,” he hissed and tried to push him away. Which wasn’t exactly easy for him, considering the fact that Michael’s soft pink lips that were currently nibbling at the skin below Luke’s left ear felt like heaven.

“Mhm?” Michael mumbled against his skin. Luke kind of wanted him to keep going, but he definitely didn’t want the others to walk in on them, so he somehow managed to shove Michael off his body and jump to his feet.

God, he probably looked totally wrecked. He couldn’t let the others see, fuck, he had to hide or climb out of the window or -

“Hey guys,” Ashton said, peeking into the room and raising an eyebrow at them. “Are you alright?”

“Sure,” Michael replied with a shrug and picked Luke’s guitar up from the ground. “We were just having a bit of an argument cause your brother here didn’t want me to touch his guitar. Looks like I won. You might want to check if he has any broken bones though.”

Luke couldn’t believe it. How did Michael do it? Seriously, how could he stay this calm, when all Luke was capable of was blushing and only just preventing his heart from bursting out of his chest?!

“Really?” Ashton asked sceptically.

“Really,” Michael nodded and Luke was about to snatch his guitar away from him and kick him out of the room, but then Michael started to strum a few chords and Luke froze right on the spot.

His eyes were following the movements of Michael’s hands and his heart picked up speed again. Shit, those fingers looked like they were actually caressing the strings, and this nearly caused Luke to hold his breath for a second. He’d never seen anyone treat a guitar so gently, and he’d never seen anyone look at an instrument with so much love in their eyes either.

This was like looking at another person. A person he’d met a thousand times by now but never gotten a real chance to get to know ...

“Hey, that sounds great,” Ashton said. “Why didn’t you bring your own guitar?”

Michael shrugged. “Cal didn’t bring his bass either. I thought today we just wanted to talk about starting a band, not actually play.”

“Yeah,” Calum agreed, suddenly appearing behind Ashton and putting his chin on his shoulder. “That and we had to take the bus. I can’t keep an eye on an instrument _and_ an overly excited eight-year-old.”

“Heeey,” Lily protested somewhere behind him, “I’m more grown up than all of you!”

Ashton let out a chuckle. “Do I have to remind you that you just tried to steal some chocolate from our kitchen?”

“I wasn’t trying to _steal_ it,” Lily objected with a pout. “I was going to ask you first, but I didn’t want to interrupt you guys.”

“We were just _talking_ ,” Ashton clarified when Luke raised an eyebrow at him. “Alright then, how about we all go back to my room now?”

“You forgot to bring the snacks,” Lily pointed out before bolting down the stairs once again. “Don’t worry, I’ll get them!”

“Oh no,” Calum groaned, turning around and following her quickly. “Lily, wait!” he called after her. “That tray is too heavy, don’t try to carry it!”

“Isn’t he the cutest?” As soon as the words were out, Ashton blushed furiously. Apparently he hadn’t planned on saying that out loud. “Um, well, I’ll be in my room. Are you guys coming or what?”

“Sure,” Michael replied, not even attempting to hide a grin.

“Okay,” Ashton said and disappeared, totally ignoring Luke calling after him to wait for him.

Michael got to his feet and turned towards him. His big green eyes were shining brighter than ever, and suddenly Luke’s heart went back to pounding heavily in his chest. He couldn’t handle being alone with him, not when Michael was staring at him so intensely …

“So, Luke,” Michael audibly cleared his throat, “what you said earlier … about us not wanting to be in a band with you …”

“You heard that?”

“Well, yeah. Listen, I, um, I don’t think that’s true.”

Luke’s eyes widened incredulously. What the hell was Michael trying to tell him? That he didn’t hate him? That he wouldn’t mind being in a band together? That he maybe even _liked_ him a bit? God, Luke hoped so, because he’d really had enough of their stupid fights. And, well, Michael was such a fucking fantastic kisser …

However, before he could ask the other boy what he was trying to imply, Michael turned around and left the room, and it took Luke only a few seconds to make the decision to follow him. Ashton was already sitting behind his drums and playing a bit, flashing them both a smile when they entered the room, “So, which one of you is going to play the guitar then today?”

“Oh,” Michael murmured, looking at the guitar in his hands and then at Luke, “sorry, I didn’t realise that I was still holding it.”

Luke cleared his throat. “It’s okay. You can play, if you want.”

“What?” Michael said surprised.

“You can play,” Luke repeated his words while trying his hardest not to blush. He failed miserably at that, if Michael’s sudden smirk was anything to go by, but he didn’t even care this time.

“Okay.” Michael coughed quietly. “I’m not very good though, so maybe you should –“

“Bullshit,” Calum interrupted him as he was entering the room with a crammed tray in his hands. “You’re the best guitarist I know, Mikey.”

Ashton raised an eyebrow at that. “No offense, but you’ve never heard _Luke_ play, have you?”

“No,” Calum had to admit and then his lips broke into a wide grin. “Alright then, Ash, it’s on – my guitarist against yours.”

“Oh shut up,” Michael said, rolling his eyes and plopping down on the bed. “We want to start a band, so, no need to make it a competition.”

Now it was Calum’s turn to raise his eyebrows. “What happened to you, Mikey? Are you feeling okay? I think you might get sick …”

“Shut up,” Michael repeated, sticking his tongue out at him and then lowering his gaze down to the guitar in his lap. “What song do you want to play first?”

Ashton shrugged. “Just play one you know.”

“Okay. Do you guys know _What I like about you_?” Michael asked after a short moment of silence, causing Ashton’s face to light up within a split second.

“Are you kidding? Of course we know that song! We’ve played it so many times together, right Lukey?”

“Yeah,” Luke nodded. “It’s great.”

“It is,” Calum agreed, taking a sip from one of the water bottles he’d brought from the kitchen and then raising an eyebrow at Lily. “Hey, don’t eat too much, yeah?”

“Sure,” Lily grinned through a mouthful of chocolate, earning only a sigh in response.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Ashton smiled happily and Luke couldn’t help but smile back. Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all …

“Wait, who’s going to sing?” Calum asked with a little frown.

Luke started to shift uncomfortably on his feet. “You guys are probably better than me, so I’m just going to listen and –“

“What?” Ashton interrupted him, throwing a disbelieving look at him. “You’ve got a great voice, I’ve told you that like a million times already!”

“He’s right,” Michael mumbled without looking at anyone, the light blush on his cheeks causing Luke’s heart to skip a beat.

“I agree,” Lily said through another mouthful of food.

“Fiiine,” Luke sighed and Michael’s lips actually seemed to twitch for a second.

“Then sit down,” Ashton demanded, apparently not even trying to hide his grin, and Luke only just bit back a groan. Since Calum had claimed the only chair in the room, Luke was forced to sit down on the bed, being practically squeezed between Michael and Lily. Great. Now he had to pretend Michael wasn’t there, because otherwise he’d probably jump him in less than ten seconds.

“Alright,” Michael murmured while keeping his gaze fixed on his fingers. _He has nice fingers_ , Luke found himself thinking. God, why couldn’t he be alone with Michael right now and have these fingers touch his skin and – okay, he really had to stop fantasizing, his jeans were already starting to feel way too tight.

He couldn’t really concentrate on the song, being too busy watching Michael play and listening to his voice. God, his voice was great. Suddenly Luke couldn’t think of a single annoying thing about him, or at least he didn’t care anymore. What the fuck was happening here?

“That was awesome,” Lily told them when they’d finished the song. “You guys should totally start a band together. I’m already your biggest fan!”

Calum let out a laugh. “She’s right. That sounded pretty good.”

“Absolutely,” Ashton agreed with sparkling eyes.

“It was alright, I guess,” Michael murmured, still looking down at his hands.

Calum rolled his eyes at him. “Oh come on, it was great! Let’s sing another song, yeah?”

Luke shrugged. Sitting so close to Michael and not being able to touch him was torture, and he wasn’t so sure if he was going to survive it. “I should probably go to my room and study,” he mumbled eventually. “That math test next week is going to be horrible and I haven’t studied yet, so –“

“Wait, what? That test is next week?” Michael interrupted him while turning his head towards him. Luke had to look away quickly because otherwise he would have drowned in those pretty green eyes. Dammit.

“Dude,” Calum said, throwing a disbelieving look at his best friend, “I’ve told you to study so many times this week!”

“Shut up, Cal. I bet you haven’t studied either,” Michael grumbled. “I mean, you’ve been quite busy with other _things_ recently,” he added while not so subtly pointing at Ashton.

Ashton audibly cleared his throat. “Actually, I helped him study a bit. But hey, if Luke wants to study now, how about you join him, Michael? – Cal, Lily, come on, let’s go to the park or have some ice cream or –“

“Great,” Lily giggled, already jumping to her feet and dragging Calum out of the room. Ashton followed them with a huge smirk on his face, and suddenly Luke felt terribly nervous.

“Well,” Michael said when they heard the front door being shut, “I hope you’re good at math, because I’m definitely not. My grades suck, I’ve been absolutely clueless for the past few years.” And without waiting for an answer, he rose to his feet and walked out of the room.

Despite his nervousness, Luke didn’t hesitate to follow him – and as soon as he’d entered his own room, his back was against the wall and Michael’s lips were on his own. Okay, so apparently they were going to study something entirely different from math, and Luke was _so_ on board with that.

“Luke,” Michael panted after a minute or so, his voice already sounding so incredibly breathless that Luke’s heart almost skipped a beat. He loved to see Michael slowly becoming a complete mess, and this definitely seemed to be where they were going with this. “Luke, please … I need more.”

“Yeah, okay,” he replied without hesitation, his fingers tangling themselves into the bright blue hair and pulling slightly. “Just … just not here …”

“Why not?” Michael mumbled against his mouth. His tongue was playing with the lip ring again and the fact that he seemed to love it so much made Luke really weak in the knees.

“Because I want to do this … properly,” Luke confessed quietly and immediately felt his cheeks heat up. “Um, I mean … can we, um …”

“Okay,” Michael interrupted him, pressing a sweet kiss to his lips and then lifting him up gently. Luke’s heart was beating a mile a minute by now; he wrapped his legs around Michael’s waist and nuzzled his face into the crook of his neck, and then it suddenly crossed his mind that he’d never felt so safe in his whole life.

That thought should have been absolutely scary … but for some reason, it wasn’t. Not even the slightest. In fact, it felt like the most wonderful thing in the world, and right now Luke wanted nothing more than to stay in Michael’s arms forever.

“Why?” he whispered when they were lying on the bed a few moments later, Michael on top of him. “Why do you want this, even though you hate me?”

Michael pressed another kiss to his lips. “I don’t hate you, you idiot.”

Luke’s heart did a backflip. “You just insulted me again,” he pointed out.

“Well, yeah,” Michael shrugged as if it was nothing, “that doesn’t mean I hate you. It’s just fun to watch you getting mad at me.”

Luke’s eyes widened incredulously. “What?”

“Wait,” Michael said with a disbelieving laugh, “you didn’t actually think I hated you, did you? Come on, Luke, not even Lily bought that, and she’s _eight_.”

“What?” Luke repeated with a somewhat dumb expression on his face. “What are you talking about? You tried to ruin my life, you insulted me all the time – and you still do. What the hell was I supposed to think?!”

“I didn’t try to ruin your life.”

“Yes, you did!” Suddenly Luke started to feel a bit angry. Maybe this was only a big joke to Michael, maybe he should have known better than to start trusting him …

“Luke,” Michael said, leaning down and trying to kiss him, but Luke pushed him off his body and scrambled to his feet.

“Maybe you should just go home, Michael” he whispered without looking at him. Why the hell did his heart feel so small and broken all of a sudden?

“No, I’m not going home,” the older boy refused while rising to his feet as well, and then he stepped closer and pulled him back into his arms. And even though Luke was still mad at him, he felt safe again immediately. Okay, maybe Michael was serious about what he’d just told him - because this didn’t seem like a joke at all.

“Then tell me why you left,” Luke murmured quietly. “Last weekend, I mean. Why did you just leave in the morning? Why, Michael?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, who noticed the [reference](http://throwinrocksatmukeswindow.tumblr.com/post/114208857393/) in this chapter? ;)
> 
> Please leave kudos and comments, and come back for the next chapter in a week. :)


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Enjoy the new chapter! :)

**19.**

“Then tell me why you left,” Luke murmured quietly. “Last weekend, I mean. Why did you just leave in the morning? Why, Michael?”

Michael’s eyes widened. “Are you mad at me for doing that? Luke, I tried to talk to you, remember? I wanted to explain why I did it, but you just told me to fuck off.”

“Yeah, because I thought that everything was just a big joke to you,” Luke mumbled without looking him in the eyes.

“It wasn’t.”

“Then tell me why you left.”

“Okay,” Michael said softly, releasing him from his arms and taking a step back. “I left because I didn’t want to get in trouble with my parents. They would have killed me if they realised that I hadn’t been home all night, so I took the first bus in the morning and snuck into the house while they were still asleep.”

“Really? Why didn’t you just wake me up before you left?”

“I should’ve done that, I know. But it was so early in the morning and you looked so cute while being asleep – um, I mean, you’re always cute, or hot –“ Michael blushed and cleared his throat, and Luke had to physically stop himself from leaping into his arms and kissing the hell out of him, because right now, _Michael_ was definitely the cute one.

“You could’ve left a note,” he said instead of throwing himself at him and making a complete fool out of himself.

“I know,” Michael repeated, letting out a deep sigh and looking at him apologetically. “I just didn’t want Cal and Ash to find it first and read it. I didn’t want them to know that I stayed here with you the whole night … Shit, that sounded wrong, didn’t it? I didn’t mean it like that, I just wanted to talk to you first. About, well, _us_. I didn’t want the others to jump to conclusions before we even got the chance to talk and … oh God, I’m rambling, sorry, I’m just going to shut up now and –“

“Good,” Luke interrupted him while taking a step forward and grabbing his face with both hands. “Because that’s definitely something you should do more often,” he added, and only a split second later he pressed a quick kiss to his lips.

“Right,” Michael replied with a small chuckle, “so you think I should put my mouth to better use, or …?”

“Exactly,” Luke all but whispered with a hesitant smile and kissed him again. Then he suddenly pulled back, dropped his hands and bit his lips. “Listen, Michael … I think I kind of like you, and kissing you feels really good … actually, it feels great. I just … I’m not sure where we’re going with this? I mean, it’s good to know that you don’t actually hate me and I guess we can try to ignore the fact that we were fighting so much, but … I need to know if this means anything to you …”

“It does,” Michael said quietly after staring at him for a moment, and there was something in his eyes that made Luke’s heart almost skip a beat. “I promise.”

Luke bit his lips again. His stupid heart couldn’t seem to stop doing excited backflips and he kind of wanted to grab Michael’s face again and kiss him for the rest of his life – but it wasn’t that easy, was it?

“What does it mean to _you_?” Michael asked eventually, his eyes widening a bit. “Because this is only going to work if we’re both on the same page, Luke. I like you … a lot. I know I didn’t act like it, but you really mean a lot to me, and I didn’t want to accept it in the beginning, so that’s why I treated you like shit … And then I thought you hated me for it, so I kept acting like an arsehole towards you, because it seemed like the only way to get your attention … Listen, if you only want to be friends, that’s okay, but please don’t think that I don’t like you. Don’t think that ever again, because I do like you. I probably like you way too much. I mean, I never would’ve tried to ruin your date with Lynn otherwise. I’m sorry for that, by the way, I was jealous and stupid and –“

“Michael,” Luke interrupted him once again, his heart feeling like it was about to jump out of his chest any moment. He couldn’t believe it – Michael Clifford actually _liked_ him. Wow. Suddenly everything made so much more sense than only a few minutes ago, and it felt so absolutely overwhelming that Luke had a hard time not to burst with happiness.

But at the same time, there was also a tiny doubt left in his mind. Yes, he was pretty sure that he liked Michael back, and that definitely more than in a purely platonic way. But what if that wasn’t enough? What if their sudden closeness didn’t only feel good because he liked him, but mainly because it was something new and exciting, something he’d never explored with anyone else before? And how the fuck was he supposed to tell Michael that?

“Luke?” Michael looked at him expectantly now, obviously waiting for him to continue, and Luke audibly cleared his throat. Okay, shit, he couldn’t just remain silent, he _had_ to say something now.

“I … I had no idea,” he confessed quietly, a light blush becoming visible on his cheeks. “I really thought you didn’t like me. Don’t … don’t get me wrong, Michael, I’m glad that you do like me, and I, um, I really like you back, I just … I can’t … I mean, I want, but …”

“Oh,” Michael said with wide eyes, immediately taking a step back and then looking down at his feet. “Okay.”

Within half a second, Luke started to feel like the biggest idiot in the world. “No, Michael, wait, I didn’t mean it like that,” he stuttered out, but Michael just shook his head and took another step back.

“I get it, Luke. You like me as a friend, that’s okay. That’s actually more than I’ve ever dared to hope for, just please don’t –“

“Shut up,” Luke interrupted him while practically throwing himself into his arms and pressing their lips together. “Stop talking,” he murmured when he pulled back after a few seconds, and then he took a deep breath before adding: “Just listen to me, okay? I mean, I just told you that I _like_ you, did you even hear that?”

“Yeah,” Michael mumbled with a sad smile, and suddenly he looked more vulnerable than Luke had ever seen him before. “I heard that, Luke - but I also heard you saying that you can’t do this. And that’s okay. It’s because I’m not a girl, isn’t it?”

“No!” Luke protested without hesitation, and really, that wasn’t the problem at all. He’d always liked girls, yes, but finding boys appealing wasn’t completely new to him either. Okay, so Michael happened to be the first – and only - guy he’d ever kissed, so what? Luke didn’t have a problem with kissing boys. One could like girls _and_ boys, right? Or maybe he just liked _people_ , just like his brother did.

Michael still looked miserable. Luke hated it, but before he could continue to speak, the older boy all but whispered, “Then why can’t you do this? Please, Luke, be honest with me. That’s all I’m asking for.”

It took Luke a moment to open his mouth and give him an answer, but when he finally did, he just knew that he was being more honest than ever before. “I’m scared,” he said quietly. “I really, really like you, Michael, and if you want to, we can try to, um, be together, or whatever you want to call it. But you should know that, as much as I like you, I’m so fucking scared of everything that might happen. I can promise you to try my hardest to make this work, but I can’t promise you anything else, and I really don’t want to tell anyone, at least not yet.”

As soon as the words were out, he saw a bright smile forming on Michael’s lips, and only seconds later Michael’s arms were sneaking around his waist to pull him close against his own body. Luke hugged him back without hesitation and nuzzled his face into the crook of Michael’s neck, inhaling his scent and wishing that this moment would never end. Okay, so he was scared. A lot. But having Michael’s arms wrapped around him made him feel so safe that he could actually forget about his fear for a moment.

“It’s okay,” he heard Michael mumble. “I don’t know what exactly you’re scared of, but everything is going to be okay, yeah? I’m here for you, Luke. And we don’t have to tell anyone, if you’re not ready for that. I’m just really fucking happy that you like me back …”

His words made Luke’s heart flutter, but at the same time they made him cringe a little. “That’s exactly what I’m scared of,” he admitted after a moment of silence, and Michael’s arms tightened around his body in an almost protective way. “I’m scared that liking each other won’t be enough … And I’ve never been in a relationship before … I have no idea what it’s like to be with someone, and I’m scared that I’ll disappoint you and ruin everything …”

“Hey,” Michael said softly, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek and starting to rub his back soothingly. “Trust me, I know that feeling. I’ve been scared to disappoint other people my whole life, I know what it’s like. And it sucks.”

“Really?” Luke asked surprised. “I always thought you were so confident.”

“Well, apparently I’m a better actor than I thought. Look, it shouldn’t be like that. We shouldn’t be scared that we might disappoint people, because being scared all the time doesn’t solve anything. If I hadn’t been so scared, I would’ve just told you that I liked you instead of getting on your nerves.”

Now Luke couldn’t stop himself from letting out a chuckle. “You have no idea how many people I told that I hated you. I guess that’s why I don’t want anyone to know yet. I’m probably too scared of what they might say.”

“That’s okay, really. We can keep it our secret for a while.” Michael was smiling again and it made Luke smile as well. Maybe Michael was right. Maybe being scared shouldn’t stop them from trying their best to make this work.

“Okay,” Luke whispered eventually, pulling back a little and looking at him with big blue eyes. “So … if you like me, and I like you … what exactly do you want us to be? I mean, um, do you want us to be … well …”

“Boyfriends?” Michael completed his sentence, a small hesitant smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Yeah.” Luke cleared his throat and bit his lips for the hundredth time today. “Do you want us to be boyfriends?”

“I’d love to,” Michael replied softly, causing Luke’s heart to skip a beat, and brought his hands up to place them on Luke’s blushing cheeks. “Do you want that, too?”

“Yeah,” Luke said without hesitation, his eyes fluttering shut, and only a split second later his hands were buried in Michael’s hair and Michael’s soft pink lips were moving against his own.

It felt so fucking fantastic and therefore Luke didn’t want to do anything else ever again. He didn’t even think about doing more sexual stuff right now, it would’ve ruined the moment anyway; all he wanted to do was stand here with Michael’s protective arms wrapped around him and share tender kisses while gently stroking his hair.

“Can we lay down?” Michael mumbled after a minute or so while slightly tightening his grip around Luke’s body.

“Okay.”

So Michael stumbled towards the bed, pulling Luke with him and then shoving him onto the mattress. Luke almost felt a little disappointed, because standing there and sharing sweet kisses had felt really nice, but then Michael was climbing on top of him, wrapping his arms back around him and nuzzling his face into Luke’s neck, and Luke thought that this felt even better.

Michael seemed to agree, because he sighed happily and then tangled their legs together. “That’s really nice,” he said, his warm breath tickling Luke’s sensitive skin, and snuggled even closer. “I hope the others won’t come back, because I want to stay like this forever.”

“Me too,” Luke smiled back. “Although,” he added with a little laugh, “we should probably study for that math test …”

Michael snorted. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Yeah,” Luke replied with another laugh. “We should definitely do something else instead.”

“Oh really?” Now Michael was grinning like an idiot. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Luke rolled his eyes at him but couldn’t help the fond smile forming on his lips. “Shut up, Clifford.”

“Make me, Hemmings,” Michael said, his grin becoming even wider, and Luke gladly did so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you like it? :)
> 
> I hope I'll be able to finish the next chapter in time, but I can't promise anything. I have to prepare for a couple job interviews, plus I won't be home this weekend (guess who's going to see 5SOS in Munich!! <3). So please be patient! :)


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Sorry that you had to wait longer this time; I’ve been super busy during the past couple weeks, but I hope the new, extra-long chapter will make it up to you. ;)
> 
> The [5SOS concert](http://tommos-cupcake.tumblr.com/post/119523236313/) I went to was amazing, by the way. I still can’t believe that I got to witness [Michael and Luke](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz3yymf4y0s/) throwing insults at each other on stage – the love/hate thing is sooo real! :D
> 
> Anyway, enjoy the new chapter! :)

**20.**

“Hi Lukey,” Ashton said as soon as he returned home in the evening, and his lips were curving into a knowing smirk. “How was your day?”

Luke, who was sitting on the couch in the living room, paused the film he was currently watching and turned towards his brother. “Have you been babysitting the whole time? It’s almost eight!” he pointed out, totally ignoring Ashton’s question and raising an eyebrow at him.

“So what? Lily’s parents are quite busy, they aren’t home very often. What about you, have you really been studying?” Ashton asked, his smirk growing even wider.

“Yeah,” Luke replied with a shrug and actually managed not to blush.

Now Ashton seemed genuinely surprised. “Really? Did Michael stay?”

“Yeah,” Luke repeated, suddenly struggling to stop his lips from breaking into a smile. “Yeah, he did. Left about two hours ago.”

“Wow, he stayed that long?”

Luke rolled his eyes at him. “Yeah. We, um, talked about music and stuff. Can you shut up now and let me watch the movie?”

“Nope. You made a promise this morning, remember?” Without waiting for an answer, Ashton plopped down next to him and raised an eyebrow at him. “Go ahead, tell me everything.”

“What? What do you mean?” Luke stuttered confused.

“Come on, Lukey. You and Michael. The kiss at the party. We agreed to talk about it, so let’s do it!”

Luke’s eyes widened in shock. Shit, he’d totally forgotten about that agreement. What the hell was he supposed to say now? He couldn’t tell Ashton about him and Michael!

“Um, yeah,” he stammered out. His face felt as if it was about to burst into flames and he desperately tried to look away from his brother, but there was no way Ashton hadn’t noticed his reddened cheeks by now. “Well, Ash, um, can we maybe not talk about it right now? I’m really tired and I just want to finish the movie and then go to bed …”

“Bullshit, you never go to bed this early,” Ashton protested.

Luke gulped. Fuck. “Okay, fine, I’m not going to bed. I just really don’t want to talk about it, Ash. I mean, you were right, I don’t hate Michael, and we’ll probably become friends if you guys want to do that whole band thing together, but there’s nothing else to talk about. So please stop asking,” he blurted out, still blushing furiously.

Ashton remained silent for a moment. Then he let out a sigh, followed by a shrug. “Alright, Luke. I can’t force you to talk about it and I promise I won’t try it again. I’m glad that you seem to get along better now … I mean, otherwise he wouldn’t have stayed here for _hours_ , right?”

“Right,” Luke murmured before audibly clearing his throat and turning slightly away from him.

“Good,” Ashton said with a genuine smile, leaning a little closer and patting him on the shoulder. “Then we can actually think about starting a band together. It wouldn’t work if you guys kept arguing the whole time.”

“I know,” Luke replied and cleared his throat once again. “He’s a pretty good musician.” _And he’s got many other talents, too_ , he barely managed not to say out loud.

Luckily their parents entered the house at that exact moment and immediately started to tell them about their day on the beach, and Luke felt really relieved that he didn’t have to answer Ashton’s questions anymore. But then his phone beeped loudly in his pocket, causing him to reach for it way too quickly, and as everyone turned their heads towards him, he couldn’t stop his cheeks from heating up.

“Um, it’s Niall,” he mumbled while already scrambling to his feet, although that was a total lie.

“Really?” Ashton said, smirking at him knowingly. “Then why are you blushing?”

“Shut up, I’m not,” Luke protested, his whole face _burning_ now, and then he fled from the living room hastily.

“Does he have a crush on someone?” he heard his mum ask. “I thought he wasn’t interested in that girl from his school anymore?”

“He isn’t,” Ashton replied with an almost evil laugh that nearly caused Luke to sprint back and murder him.

“And it’s none of our business anyway,” he then heard his father say. Thank God there was at least one sane person in this family! Well, a few days ago Luke definitely would have called himself a sane person, too, but right now he wasn’t so sure. The dopey grin that appeared on his face as soon as he entered his own room and read Michael’s text message didn’t feel sane at all.

**Hey loser, miss me already?**

_You wish_ , Luke typed back without hesitation.

**:( Heeey, that’s mean!**

_You’re one to talk …_

**That was ages ago! And I apologised!**

_You literally insulted me a minute ago. You really think I’m a loser?_

**Oh, definitely!**

_:(_

**MY loser :)**

Luke couldn’t help it, his lips broke into a wide grin again and his heart seemed to do a backflip. He probably looked really stupid right now, but he couldn’t have cared less to be honest.

_Okay, fine. I might miss you a little …_

**I knew it! ;)**

_You’re an idiot, Clifford._

**YOUR idiot, right?**

_Yeah. Oh God, what was I thinking, now I’m stuck with you … :-O_

**Shut up, you love it! :P**

Luke felt his heart flutter in his chest again. He almost couldn’t believe it how _happy_ Michael made him, and a small part of him wanted nothing more than to scream it from the rooftops for everyone to hear. If only he wasn’t so stupid and scared and –

**Lukey?**

_Really? That’s what you’re calling me now? It’s embarrassing enough that Ashton does it!_

**Well, he’s not allowed to do that anymore. You’re my Lukey now! :)**

_Fiiiine, if you insist … You want me to call you Mikey then? :P_

**Nah, that’s weird, Cal’s not gonna stop calling me that …**

_Okay, then how about Mike?_

**Yeah, that’s good. I bet it sounds really hot when you say it. Wanna come over and try it? ;)**

_Now? I thought your parents had guests tonight? That was the reason why you had to go home earlier, wasn’t it?_

**Yeah, and it was absolutely awful, they were boring as hell. But now they’re gone and my parents are out for dinner and a movie, so they won’t be home before midnight. Speaking of dinner, I’m really hungry. :(**

_Then you should get something to eat._

**Exactly. So, you’re coming or what? :P**

It took Luke’s brain a few seconds to process the not so subtly hidden meaning behind those words, but then his mouth fell open and he felt himself blush so hard that his face was absolutely burning. Did Michael just imply that he wanted to …? Oh God. Fuck. What was he supposed to say now?!?

 _I don’t know_ , he typed eventually, his hands actually shaking a little. And then, before pressing send, he added quickly, _Do you want me to?_

**Mhmm. Not so sure actually. Maybe it’ll take a while …**

_Why am I not surprised? You’re a fucking tease, Clifford!_

**I know, I’m pretty awesome. :)**

_No, Mike, you’re not. You suck._

**And you’re the worst!**

_Why are we having this conversation?_

**I don’t know, why aren’t you here yet?**

_On my way_ , Luke typed quickly before shoving his phone back into his pocket and all but running downstairs. “Bye!” he shouted while reaching for the door handle, hoping to get out of the house before anyone could stop him and ask stupid questions.

“Where are you going?”

Dammit, his mum was always so fast. Struggling to hold back a deep sigh, Luke turned around to face her and gave his best to keep a straight face. “Um, I just got invited to a movie night. By, um, one of my classmates. Can I go?” he asked, almost stumbling over his words in an attempt to get out of here as fast as possible, and then he immediately felt a light blush creeping up his neck. Smooth, really.

His mum raised an eyebrow at him. “Why are you being so nervous? Is there anything you’re not telling me?”

Oh _great_. “No,” he managed to reply while blushing even further and trying his hardest not to feel too guilty about lying to her. It didn’t really work.

“Okay,” his mum said after staring him down for a moment, and then she just shrugged. “Go ahead, have fun.”

“Really?”

“Sure. I trust you, Luke. You know that, right?“ And without even waiting for an answer, she turned around and walked back into the living room.

“I lied to my mum,” was the first thing Luke blurted out when Michael was opening the door for him half an hour later. “That’s how far it has come.”

“Poor Lukey,” Michael replied with an almost mocking grin and pulled him into his arms. “Why did you lie to her?”

“She asked me where I was going! I panicked! And then I told her that I’d been invited to watch a movie,” Luke said while nuzzling his face into the crook of Michael’s neck and wrapping his arms around his waist.

“Oh come on, don’t tell me you’ve never lied to your parents before! Besides – we can still watch a movie tonight. We’re just doing something else first.” The last few words were leaving Michael’s mouth as a hoarse whisper, causing Luke’s entire body to shiver with anticipation, and only a minute or so later they were both rushing into Michael’s room and nearly stumbling over a pile of clothes on the floor.

“Wow,” Luke couldn’t stop himself from teasing. “You’re even messier than me!”

Michael’s lips were curving into a little smirk. “Want me to show you how messy it can get in here?”

“Hell yes,” Luke said without hesitation, stepping closer towards him and licking his lips, and Michael’s now slightly widened eyes followed the movement of his tongue. “What?” Luke asked after a moment of silence, frowning a little as Michael was just standing there and watching him. “What’s that look supposed to mean?”

Michael let out a small breathless laugh. “You still don’t get it, do you? Fuck, Luke, you have no idea how much I’ve wanted this … wanted _you_. Now that I can finally have you, you shouldn’t be surprised that I want to look at you as much as possible. You’re so, so beautiful.”

“Oh.” Luke felt himself blush a little. “No, I’m not, and it’s really weird hearing it from you. Can’t you just go back to insulting me?”

“Oh shut up,” Michael sighed, rolling his eyes at him with an almost fond expression, before he took a step forward and placed one hand on Luke’s neck to pull him close.

“Make me,” Luke whispered back, sneaking his arms around Michael’s waist and eliciting a small moan from the other boy’s lips by gripping onto his arse tightly.

“Fuck,“ Michael cursed quietly before leaning forward and firmly pressing their lips together. After a few seconds, however, he pulled back again and Luke was about to protest, but then Michael pushed him onto the bed and climbed on top of him, already pulling his own shirt over his head in one swift movement and then reaching for Luke’s shirt to do the same.

“Eager, are we?” Luke grinned up at him, waggling his eyebrows suggestively as his shirt hit the floor. “Are you still hungry, Mike?”

“Fuck,” Michael repeated somewhat breathlessly. “Stop doing that, Hemmings.”

“Doing what?” Luke asked, biting his lips and batting his eyelashes at him as innocently as possible. Only that it probably didn’t seem innocent at all – but then again, that was the whole point, to be honest.

“That thing with your eyebrows. And your goddamn lip biting, too. It’s driving me crazy!”

Luke’s lips broke into an almost devilish smirk. Teasing Michael was his new favourite thing in the world, he quickly decided. Oh, how the tables had turned! This was going to be _so much_ fun …

“Is it? Well, excellent,“ he said, practically feeling the smug expression on his own face, and pulled his piercing between his lips.

“Fuck you,” Michael growled. Then he leaned down and started sucking and biting on Luke’s neck, causing the younger boy’s smirk to fall right off his face and be replaced by an aroused expression instead.

“Oh God,” he breathed out, earning a deeply satisfied look in response.

“Alright then. Seems like I just found something that drives _you_ crazy,” Michael stated the obvious before going back to attacking Luke’s sensitive skin, and Luke’s eyes fluttered shut. Shit, Michael was so fucking good at this.

He must have said that out loud, if the incredibly pleased expression on Michael’s face was anything to go by, and Luke didn’t regret it at all. Sure, he wanted to tease him and maybe even argue a bit – because now that they were together, he could totally see that it was kind of hot – but at the same time, he also wanted to praise him for making him feel so good.

So he didn’t even try to hold in the loud gasp that suddenly left his mouth. Michael’s lips were on his left nipple now, sucking and licking and then leaving a trail of small kisses down his torso, and Luke loved every second of it.

“You like that, don’t you?” Michael asked after a minute or so while grinning up at him and licking his lips.

Luke let out a heavy breath. “Yeah. So good. Keep going.“

„Well,“ Michael said, raising his pierced eyebrow at him and just managing to suppress a fond smile, „you should know by now that I don’t approve of you giving me orders, Hemmings.”

“Oh _really_?” Luke replied without missing a beat, his lips breaking into a challenging smirk. “Are you sure of that, Clifford?” And without even waiting for an answer, he tangled his hands into the blue strands of hair and gave them a sharp tug, immediately causing Michael’s mouth to fall open and release a small moan.

“Fuck you,” Michael panted once again as Luke’s smirk was growing even wider. Then he pushed the rest of Luke’s clothes down his legs and took his half-hard member into his hand, and suddenly Luke wasn’t smirking anymore.

“I’d much rather _you_ do that,” he said with a moan that was probably loud enough to be heard down the entire street.

Michael stared at him for a moment, his eyes widening incredulously, and then he audibly cleared his throat and sped up the movements of his hand. “You really want that?” he asked in a husky voice while watching Luke pant and squirm underneath him.

“Yeah,” Luke breathed out, his hands still buried in Michael’s hair. “Maybe … not today … but definitely soon … God, Michael, your hand feels so amazing …”

Michael smirked. “Yeah, I know.”

“You’re such an arsehole,” Luke said with a breathless laugh and pulled at his hair again, just because he could, and unsurprisingly, he was rewarded with an audible moan. His lips broke into a very pleased smirk; however, it didn’t last very long, because Michael decided to take revenge on him by replacing his hand with his mouth and swallowing Luke’s entire length as if it was nothing.

“Fuck,” Luke screamed out, his hips bucking up involuntarily and almost choking the older boy to death.

“Goddamit, Luke, control yourself!” Michael coughed out after pulling back just in time. “First of all: Can you keep your fucking voice down for once? I don’t want the whole city to hear you!”

“Sorry,” Luke panted. “But it was kind of your own fault!”

“Sure it was. Next time we’re doing this, I’m going to tie your stupid hips to the bed first,” Michael growled, but his lips were twitching suspiciously and he couldn’t stop himself from adding, “At least it’s nice to know that you seem to like my mouth so much.”

“Well, can you stop using it for words then and put it to better use instead?”

“I don’t know, maybe you should get an insurance first. You know, just in case you’ll kill me accidentally.”

“Michael, if you don’t do something within the next five seconds, it won’t be an accident.”

“Fiiine. Turn around. On your stomach.“

“What?“

“Do you want my mouth on you or not?”

“Yeah, but –“

“Then trust me, okay? You’ll like it, I promise. Remember when I told you that I wanted something to eat?” Michael asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively, and Luke’s face turned bright red within a nanosecond.

“Oh,” he murmured while rolling onto his stomach and burying his face in the pillow.

“Good boy. Now try to hold still, alright?” Michael whispered softly before leaning down and littering Luke’s broad shoulders with light kisses.

Having his plump red lips ghosting over his naked skin caused Luke to feel goose bumps all over his body. “Michael,” he moaned quietly and tangled his fingers into the sheets. “Please.”

He could feel him smile against his skin; not challengingly or smugly this time, but rather affectionately. “I’m going to make you feel so good, Luke. God, you’re so beautiful.“

“Stop saying that,“ Luke mumbled, feeling a little embarrassed.

“It’s the truth. Now shut up.” Before Luke could even begin to protest, Michael started dragging his lips further down his spine, leaving tender kisses on every inch of his heated skin. It felt amazing and Luke didn’t want him to stop, like, ever.

“So good,” he breathed out while tightening his grip on the fabric beneath him.

Michael let out a small chuckle. “It’s going to be even better.”

Luke was about to tell him that he really didn’t know if he could handle something that felt even more incredible than Michael’s lips and tongue _on_ his body, but then he suddenly felt Michael’s hands gripping his arse and his tongue slowly circling his hole. “Fuck,” he gasped with serious struggle to keep his hips from moving uncontrollably. “Oh my God, Michael …”

Michael couldn’t help the grin that was appearing on his lips. “Feels good, yeah?”

“So fucking good. Oh fuck. Don’t stop, Michael.”

“I won’t. Just try to hold still, alright?”

The next few minutes seemed to be a blur of _MichaelMichaelMichael_ , with Luke being unable to think of anything else. Michael’s hands were still resting on his arse, his fingernails digging into the sensitive skin and causing Luke to become a panting mess by leaving a few scratches there. But the best part was without any doubt Michael’s mouth. The way he was alternating between licking Luke’s hole and sucking bruises into the hot flesh of his cheeks almost caused Luke to see stars.

“Michael …” He was close, so close, but his fuzzy brain refused to let his mouth tell him so. His hands, still clutching the sheets forcefully, were hurting by now and his entire body felt as if it was about to explode any second. A part of him wanted to reach for his rock-hard cock that was trapped between his stomach and the sheets, because fuck, he wanted to come so badly, but at the same time he couldn’t seem to be able to concentrate on more than one thing right now.

So he just kept rutting against the sheets, trying to get as much friction as possible and loudly moaning into the pillow. Then Michael pushed his tongue inside him for the first time and Luke came, harder than ever and with a scream of Michael’s name.

“Fuck,” he heard Michael moan. It took him a few moments to come down from his high, but as soon as he realised that his boyfriend was still kneeling somewhere behind him and furiously pumping his own cock, he rolled onto his back and pulled him into his arms.

“Let me,” he said, barely recognising his own fucked out voice. A second later he was pushing his tongue into Michael’s mouth, not even caring that Michael’s tongue had been in his own arse less than two minutes ago.

They kissed for a while, with Michael tangling his hands in Luke’s dishevelled blond hair and Luke reaching for the older boy’s cock. But suddenly Luke thought that this wasn’t enough; not after Michael had made him feel so good with his hands and his lips and his incredible tongue. He wanted to make him feel just as good, maybe even better, and he definitely knew how to do that. Well, at least he could give it a try.

“I’m going to suck you off,” he mumbled, still feeling absolutely overwhelmed by everything that had happened in the past couple minutes. Michael blinked at him for a moment and then nodded, and Luke somehow managed to sit up and crawl between Michael’s legs that were still half-covered in his black skinny jeans.

Luke pulled them down, along with the black pair of boxers, and tossed them aside. He would have been nervous about the fact that he was about to suck a dick for the very first time in his life, but still being in his post orgasm haze, he didn’t really care. It was just Michael, right? He wouldn’t make fun of him – well, not anymore. Not about a situation like this. At least he hoped so.

“You don’t have to,” Michael said quietly.

“I know,” Luke replied with a smile. “But I want to. I, um, I’ve never done this before, but I want to try it. Is that okay?”

Michael snorted but couldn’t stop his lips from breaking into a grin that looked rather fond than anything else. “That’s the dumbest question you’ve ever asked, Luke Hemmings. Just go for it. I probably won’t last long though,” he added, giving a little shrug. “It’s entirely your fault, you’re just too hot for this world. I should’ve taken a picture of you when you came, it was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Shut up, idiot,” Luke mumbled while blushing furiously.

“I could still do that next time, you know,” Michael suggested, totally ignoring the command. “Then I could show you how pretty you look when you –“

“This conversation is over,” Luke interrupted him resolutely before leaning down to suck a bruise into the pale skin of Michael’s thigh. Then he took Michael’s erection back into his hand and gave it a few quick strokes, and Michael’s piercing green eyes fluttered shut.

“Fuck, Luke … Do you have any idea how much it turns me on when you’re like this?” he breathed out, causing Luke to look at him with a clearly confused look on his face.

“Like what?”

Michael rolled his eyes. “Yeah, forget it, you just ruined it. Puppy eyes aren’t very dominant, Lukey.”

“Oh,” Luke said with raised eyebrows and gave Michael’s dick another hard tug, “so you want me to be the dominant one in this relationship? That’s interesting, _Mike_. Very interesting.”

“Well,” Michael replied, taking a sharp breath and thrusting up into Luke’s hand, “we both know that I’m … oh fuck … the one to set the tone here …”

“Really?” Luke raised his eyebrows again. “Doesn’t look like it right now.”

“That’s because you’re fucking hot when you’re acting so dominantly … Shit, you’re really fucking good with your hands … But at the end of the day, I’m the one to – oh FUCK,” he cried out as Luke decided that it was time for his mouth to intervene and therefore took the tip of Michael’s cock into his mouth to suck lightly.

“You were saying?” he smirked at him after bobbing his head up and down a few times and then pulling back a little.

Michael let out a breathless laugh. “Yeah, you’re fucking good with your mouth, too. Natural talent, huh? Are you sure you’ve never done this before?”

“Yeah. It seems pretty easy to me.”

“Fantastic. Back to work then, Lukey.”

“Will do, Mike. Will do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it. ;)
> 
> Unfortunately, I have no idea how long it’ll take me to write the next chapter. :/ I finally got a job and I’m moving to another place in a few weeks, so there won’t be much time for anything else … I promise to update as soon as possible though, so please be patient! Thank you. :)


	21. Chapter 21

**21.**

When Luke woke up the next morning, it was to the sight of a very naked Michael Clifford right next to him.

It took him a few seconds to remember the day and night before and everything that had happened between them, but then he couldn’t stop his lips from curving into a happy little smile. He had a boyfriend. A _boyfriend_. Unbelievable. If someone had told him that a couple of days ago, he would have laughed incredulously. But now they were together and Luke couldn’t have been happier.

Michael looked happy, too, even in his sleep. His arm was slung across Luke’s chest and with their faces being only inches apart, Luke could see the way his lips were curled into a peaceful smile. Luke’s own smile only widened at that sight. It felt so nice to lay here … together … in Michael’s bed … in his room … only the two of them …

Oh _fuck_.

Luke’s eyes widened in shock. God, he was so stupid. They weren’t alone in the house, it was the next morning, Michael’s parents were probably only a few metres away … Shit, he must have fallen asleep without realising, being too tired to get up after giving Michael that blowjob, and Michael hadn’t woken him up and now it was almost ten o’clock in the morning and he was still here …

His mum was going to kill him, that was for sure. He knew that he was supposed to at least send her a text if he wanted to stay somewhere else overnight, and he hadn’t done that at all. Movie night with his classmates, yeah right. Oh, he was going to get in so much trouble for this!

“Morning, loser,” he suddenly heard Michael’s scratchy voice and then a quick kiss was pressed to his cheek. “You look pretty horrified ... Is it that bad to wake up next to me and my glorious nakedness?”

Despite his current desperation, Luke couldn’t stop himself from barking out a laugh. Those words were just so _Michael_.

“See, that’s better,” the blue-haired boy said, now looking at him with a genuine smile. “Come on, stop frowning and let’s cuddle instead.”

“Um, Michael. Wait.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Michael asked, his smile fading a bit. “You … you don’t, like … regret it, do you?” He looked almost sad now and Luke immediately cursed himself for being the reason for it.

“No! No, absolutely not,” he quickly tried to reassure him. “It’s just, I, um, my parents are going to kill me for staying here overnight, and what about _your_ parents?! Can I, um, sneak out without them noticing?”

“Hey, don’t worry,” Michael replied after a moment of silence and pulled him into his arms. “My parents won’t mind that you stayed here. And, I mean, you told your mum that you were leaving, so she probably assumed that it got late and you decided to stay overnight instead of going home in the middle of the night.”

“Yeah, but I was supposed to tell her that,” Luke sighed while snuggling closer. God, Michael’s skin on his own felt so fantastic …

“Just call her now,” Michael suggested, pressing sweet little kisses to his forehead and eliciting a small noise of pleasure from Luke’s throat.

“Yeah,” Luke agreed without moving the slightest. Michael’s arms around him were his new favourite place in the world and he wished he could stay there forever.

“Wouldn’t she have called you though? If she’d be worried, I mean,” Michael said quietly, his grip tightening a bit around Luke’s body. It seemed like such a protective gesture that Luke’s heart almost burst with happiness.

“Yeah, you’re right. She would’ve done that, definitely. I should probably call her anyway,” Luke murmured with another sigh, causing Michael to release him from his arms and climb off the bed to get Luke’s jeans and search through the pockets.

“Oh. Looks like the battery died,” he told him when he’d finally found Luke’s phone.

“Fuck,” Luke exclaimed while already snatching it from his hands and staring at the dark screen in absolute horror. “She’s going to _kill_ me.”

“Oh come on, it can’t be that bad. Here, take my phone to call her and after that we can go back to cuddling.”

“I doubt it. She’s probably going to make me come home and stay there until graduation,” Luke groaned with a slightly exaggerated look of desperation on his face, and Michael couldn’t help a small laugh escaping his throat.

“Sorry,” he said as Luke shoved him a little. “You just … you’re adorable.”

“No I’m not,” Luke protested, his fingers practically flying over the screen of Michael’s phone in an attempt to type in his home number as fast as possible.

Michael rolled his eyes with a fond smile. It seemed to be his new Luke smile, and it was amazing. “Shut up, you are.”

“No, I’m – oh, hi Ash.”

“Hi troublemaker,” Ashton replied at the other end of the line. He was smirking, Luke could tell, and he was also talking loud enough for Michael to hear every single word. “You owe me big time for saving your arse.”

“What … what do you mean?” Luke stuttered and Michael just raised an eyebrow expectantly.

“Well, when Mum and Dad went to bed last night and you still weren’t here, I told them that you’d sent me a text a bit earlier, and that you were probably going to stay at your classmate’s house overnight,” Ashton explained, sounding so incredibly smug that Luke had to hold his breath for a moment. Fuck, his brother was up to something. He definitely was.

“Why … um, thanks. We, uh, we kind of … fell asleep without realising, so … um, yeah, thanks Ash”, Luke stammered out helplessly, and next to him Michael actually facepalmed.

Yeah, he was right, that had sounded absolutely stupid and pathetic. Shit.

“Sure, anything for my baby brother. So, are you going to tell me where you are?”

Luke swallowed hard. Shit, shit, shit. He couldn’t lie to his brother after what he’d done for him, could he?

“Lukey, I’m waiting.”

“Would you stop calling me that?” Luke blurted out without thinking, causing Michael’s lips to curve into a satisfied little grin. 

“Why? I think it’s cute.”

“Yeah, well, I think it’s not,” Luke mumbled while looking at Michael almost apologetically. That was another lie then – or at least half a lie, since it was actually kind of cute when _Michael_ said it.

“Fine, if you insist. So, where are you? And are you planning on coming home anytime soon?”

“I, um. I’m just with a few classmates, you don’t know them.” Luke felt so guilty for lying _again_ but he just couldn’t bring himself to tell Ashton the truth. Not yet. He still had to get used to the fact that he was now _Michael Clifford’s_ boyfriend, and even though he kind of wanted to tell the whole world about it, he just felt too scared to actually do it.

“Oh really. Are you sure about that?” Ashton sounded so incredibly pleased with himself that Luke wanted nothing more than to end this call and throw himself back into Michael’s arms. Unfortunately, that would have made everything look even more suspicious.

“What do you want from me, Ash?” he choked out. Michael seemed to sense that he was close to a mental breakdown, because suddenly he was wrapping his arms around him and pressing a soft little kiss to his hair, and Luke felt a little better immediately.

“Well, I’m just saying, it’s not very nice to lie to your own brother. Especially not if said brother has saved your arse from being grounded until Christmas. Oh, did I mention that Calum called me last night?”

“So?”

“He might or might not have seen someone snuck into his best friend’s house. You do realise that they live in the same neighbourhood, right?” Ashton said smugly as fuck, and Luke almost dropped the phone into his lap. Oh no. Oh _hell_ no.

“Shit,” Michael muttered under his breath, his face turning slightly red at the thought of his best friend knowing more than he should, and that was all it took for Ashton to let out a triumphant laugh.

“I _knew_ it. Hi Michael. I hope you’re being nice to my little brother - because if you break his heart, I’ll break your bones. All of them.”

Luke made a small panicked noise in the back of his throat. Ashton wasn’t supposed to know about them, and neither was Calum! He was almost one hundred percent sure that they would be making fun of them forever, that he and Michael would never be hearing the end of it …

“Hi Ash,” Michael said, snatching the phone from Luke’s hand and pressing it to his ear. Someone had to save the day, and it wasn’t going to be Luke, that was for sure. To be honest, Luke looked like he was going to die from embarrassment any second, and that had Michael springing into protector mode. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Ashton snorted loudly. “Yeah, right.”

“No, I’m serious,” Michael protested and tightened his grip around Luke’s shaking body. “I was bored as hell last night, so I invited Luke over to watch a movie. It wasn’t a very good one though, so we fell asleep halfway through it. Where’s the problem, huh?”

“Liar,” Ashton giggled. He fucking _giggled_. “Are you seriously trying to tell me that you asked your _arch enemy_ to watch a movie with you?”

Michael rolled his eyes. “Okay, fiiine, so we decided not to be enemies anymore. I mean, if we want to do the whole band thing, we should at least try to be friends, right? And by the way: I would’ve invited Cal over, but he’s so madly in love with you and if I have to listen to him fangirling over your perfect little arse one more time, I’m going to vomit my guts out.”

Ashton let out a strangled noise. “He … he’s in love with me?”

Michael rolled his eyes again. “Of course he is, dickhead. So, if you ever hurt him, I’ll break _your_ bones. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to take a shower. _Alone_.”

“But –“ Ashton shrieked in a high-pitched voice, and Michael just shrugged and ended the call.

“You,” Luke said, turning around and staring at him with a big stupid smile that made Michael’s heart flutter in his chest, “are my new favourite person in the world. You’re not going to shower alone though, are you?”

“I’m not going to shower at all,” Michael replied with a grin. “Let’s stay in bed all day, yeah?”

Luke was really tempted to agree, but then there were footsteps in the hallway and only a few seconds later someone was knocking at the door. “Michael? Breakfast’s ready,” they heard a female voice call in a soft voice, and Luke’s eyes widened in horror. Oh fuck, he’d totally forgotten about Michael’s parents!

Michael practically leaped off the bed, grabbing all his clothes and putting them on so fast that he nearly knocked his shoulder into the wall. Luke did the same; unfortunately, his legs seemed to be cursed once again, or maybe his limbs were simply less coordinated than Michael’s – yeah, they definitely were, because _Michael_ wasn’t the one to stumble over his own feet and fall onto the bed with a helpless yelp.

“Fuck,” Luke exclaimed way too loudly and lifted his face from the sheets while still struggling with his shirt.

“Unbelievable,” Michael sighed, quickly stepping forward and leaning over the bed. He reached for Luke’s shirt and pulled at the fabric, and only seconds later he lost his balance and toppled over, landing on top of Luke’s body as a result.

A pained noise escaped Luke’s throat. “Get off me!” he grunted, his voice being muffled by Michael’s shoulder.

Michael couldn’t help the sudden smirk on his lips. “I don’t know, Luke. I kind of like being on top of you.”

“Oh my God,” Luke groaned. “Michael, I’m serious, I need to _breathe_.”

“Fiiine,” Michael all but whined with a pout that Luke couldn’t even see. “Hold on, I’ll just –“

“Michael? Michael, are you alright? Did something hap- oh. Ohhh. I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had company.”

Luke wanted to die. Oh shit, this was so embarrassing.

“Um, hi Mum,” Michael said in a high-pitched voice and quickly climbed off the bed. Luke lifted his head and saw Michael’s mum standing in the doorway. Her lips were curled into a knowing smile and Luke felt like passing out any second.

“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” she asked in a light tone, and while Luke was trying to get off the bed as graceful as possible, Michael audibly cleared his throat.

“No, of course not. We, um, we were watching a movie last night and then fell asleep before we could get up, and, um … well. You’re not upset, are you? It was an accident, he didn’t mean to stay overnight …”

“I’m not upset at all,” she replied, her smile growing even wider. For some reason, it made Luke blush furiously. “So,” she continued, nodding at him, “it’s nice to meet you, Luke.”

“Muuum,” Michael whisper-shouted at her, his face now slightly reddening, too.

“Um,” Luke said with a really dumb expression on his face. “You, um. You know my name.”

Mrs Clifford just kept smiling at him. It was almost a bit scary. “Oh, sure. I’ve heard it … occasionally.”

Michael looked like he wanted to murder someone. Plus, he’d blushed even more than Luke by now, so he was definitely embarrassed by something.

“Oh,” Luke mumbled and cleared his throat. “But we, um. We’ve never, uh, met before?”

“Oh, I know. I always read Michael’s yearbooks and look at the pictures of his classmates. At least of the important ones,” she said with a little laugh, causing Michael’s face to turn such a dark shade of purple that Luke almost got a bit worried.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Michael choked out while glaring at his mum accusingly.

Her smile turned into a grin. An actual _grin_. “Alright then, boys. Who wants breakfast?”

“Uh,” Luke stammered out, throwing a helpless look at Michael, “I, um, I should probably go home and -”

“You don’t have to, Luke. I’m sure the two of you must be hungry. Meet me downstairs in five minutes?” And without waiting for an answer, she left the room and closed the door.

“Oh God,” Michael murmured, sounding absolutely mortified.

Luke raised an eyebrow at him. “What did she mean when she said that she’s been looking at pictures of your _important_ classmates?”

“Um,” Michael replied, still looking completely embarrassed, “I might have, um, mentioned you once or twice?”

“Oh. What did you tell her?” Luke asked, stepping towards him and letting out a little laugh. “Let me guess. You told her that you hated me and wanted to kill me rather sooner than later?”

“Yeah. Pretty much. She never believed me though, so … well … at some point, she found out that, um, that I … that I like you. Apparently I’m a really bad liar.”

Luke’s lips broke into a smile. “I still can’t believe that.”

“What?”

“That you actually like me,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around Michael and holding him tight. “It makes me so happy. – So, your mum really knows it? Mine still thinks that I hate you …”

“I bet she doesn’t. Mums are way too clever for us.”

“Wait. Did you tell your mum that we’re dating now?” Luke asked while trying not to think about the possibility of his own mum knowing more than she should.

Michael shook his head. Luke could feel him smile against his neck. “Nope. She probably knows anyway. Like I said, mums are ridiculously clever.”

“And … do you think she’s okay with that? With, uh, her son dating a boy?”

“My parents know that I’m bisexual, Luke. And yes, they’re okay with it. Now come on, let’s have breakfast,” Michael said with a bright smile on his face, the former blush on his cheeks having almost disappeared by now.

“Okay,” Luke agreed, still feeling a bit nervous but deciding that he could do this with Michael by his side.

Two minutes later, he wasn’t so sure anymore. Michael’s parents were both already sitting at the breakfast table when the boys entered the room, and suddenly Luke felt terribly nervous again. Michael’s mum seemed to like him, sure, but what about his dad? And how the fuck was he supposed to act around them without making a complete fool out of himself?!

“Luke,” Mrs Clifford said cheerfully and motioned for them to sit down while beaming at them overly excited, “it’s so great to finally meet you! We’re so happy that you’re Michael’s new … _friend_."

Michael immediately glared at her and poor Luke almost choked when he saw her actually _wink_ at him. Oh God, this was going to be so fucking awkward!

It got even worse when Mr Clifford’s lips curved into a knowing smirk. “Nice to meet you, Luke. – You know, Michael, I think you might have exaggerated a little, he’s not that tall …”

And just like that, the former blush on Michael's face was back within a nanosecond, and Luke had to stop himself from letting out a surprised laugh. What the hell?!

“Don’t embarrass our son, darling. That’s my job, after all,” Mrs Clifford claimed with a shit-eating grin that nearly caused Luke to pass out right then and there, and Michael’s eyes were practically screaming murder by now.

“Can you _please_ shut up?” he groaned. “I didn't do anything to deserve this!”

His mother’s grin turned into a wide smile now. “I think you got exactly what you deserve, honey,” she said softly while looking back and forth between the two boys. “So, Luke, let me get something clear. I’m Karen, and my husband’s name is Daryl, and we’d love you to call us that, if you’re comfortable with it.”

“Um,” Luke replied more than just a little surprised. “Uh, sure.”

Her smile grew even wider. “Good. Welcome to the family."

Luke couldn't help it, his mouth fell open and his eyes widened incredulously. He kept staring at Michael’s parents for a moment, wondering if anyone had ever seemed so genuinely happy about him being friends with their son – the answer was no, at least he couldn’t remember any situation like this. Then he slowly turned his head towards his boyfriend and nearly choked at the sight. Michael’s blush was still visible on his cheeks, but he didn’t look embarrassed anymore. In fact, he was smiling so big that his cheeks were probably hurting.

Luke’s heart did a backflip. Seeing Michael like this felt like the best thing in the world, and that was all it took for Luke’s lips to break into a wide smile as well. “Thank you,” he heard himself say, his pair of deep blue eyes not leaving Michael’s green ones for even a split second. “That means a lot.”

“Yeah,” Michael agreed in a soft voice. His left hand moved towards Luke’s right one that was resting on the edge of the table, and when Luke gave him a small reassuring nod, he gently brushed their knuckles together.

Luke could have sworn that he heard a delighted little sigh from Karen after that, but he was too caught up in the magical moment he was having with Michael right now. He could get used to this, really. Having Michael in his life seemed like everything he’d ever needed, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to let anyone take this away from him. Like, ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me way longer than I hoped it would. I really like my new job, but at the moment I barely have time for anything else. So, please be patient! :)
> 
> I don't know if you guys have seen [this video](http://throwinrocksatmukeswindow.tumblr.com/post/122614366768/) already, but it's one of the many reasons why I love Michael so much. He's simply amazing! ♥
> 
> (If you follow me on tumblr or twitter, don't be confused, I changed my URLs. On twitter I'm **Leo_111188** now and my new tumblr is **throwinrocksatmukeswindow**.)


	22. Chapter 22

**22.**

Mondays weren’t exactly Calum’s favourite day of the week, but when he arrived at school this Monday morning and saw a familiar car parking in front of the building, his lips broke into a happy little smile.

His smile widened even further as soon as he’d approached the car and leaned through the open window to place a chaste kiss on his boyfriend’s soft pink lips. “Hi there,” he said after pulling back, his smile now turning into a grin. “Didn’t expect to see you here, to be honest. You’re not switching schools, are you?”

“Nope, sorry,” Ashton replied with an almost apologetic look on his face. It was adorable. _He_ was adorable.

“You’re adorable,” Calum said out loud before he could stop himself from doing so. Ashton blushed and let out a fit of giggles, and Calum could feel his heart flutter in his chest. He was so, so lucky to have found that ball of sunshine, really.

“And you’re the cutest person I’ve ever met. So, um, about me being here … I’ve been driving Luke to school and thought I’d wait for you … you know, to do a bit of this …” Ashton explained with a chuckle, already leaning a little closer and pressing their lips back together.

Calum smiled against his mouth, enjoying the sweet kiss and the gentle touch of Ashton’s fingertips against his cheeks. After a while they pulled back and just smiled at each other for what seemed like an eternity, and Calum found himself thinking that he wouldn’t mind staying like this forever.

Some girl behind him called his name, but Calum didn’t even realise, being way too busy gazing into Ashton’s hazel eyes with pure admiration. It wasn’t until said girl approached him and put her hand onto his shoulder that Calum became aware of her.

“Hi,” she chirped, totally ignoring the fact that Calum’s upper body was practically melting through the car window to be as close to Ashton as possible.

Before Calum could even open his mouth to reply, a second girl appeared behind him. “Sweetie, you’re wasting your time. Calum’s clearly not interested - just like he hasn’t been interested the last twenty times you tried to get into his pants. No means no,” she told her, causing Ashton to bark out a laugh and the other girl to glare at them angrily before turning around and walking away.

“That was amazing,” Ashton said while Calum tried his hardest not to blush.

“You’re welcome. Calum, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Uh. Sure, Lynn.”

Ashton’s eyes widened in surprise. “Wait. You’re Lynn?”

“Yeah.” She raised an eyebrow at him. “Why do you know my name?”

“Well.” Ashton’s lips curved into a little grin. “I’m Ashton. Luke’s older brother. I heard the two of you are friends now?”

“Oh! Nice to meet you, Ashton,” she replied and shook his hand with a genuine smile. “Yeah, we decided to be friends. Luke’s a great guy, he’s just … well …”

“Hopelessly in love with my stupid best friend,” Calum blurted out.

Lynn let out a laugh. “Exactly. He was just too blind to see it.”

Now it was Ashton’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “He _was_ too blind? What do you mean?”

“Well. Actually, that’s why I wanted to talk to Calum … I might or might not have seen them five minutes ago. Together. Looks like they finally stopped being dumb.”

“Together?” Calum echoed loudly while Ashton’s lips were already breaking into a huge grin.

“Ha!” he said triumphantly. “I mean, we knew that they spent half the weekend together, but we couldn’t be sure what exactly they were doing …”

Lynn coughed quietly. “Well, I know what they were doing five minutes ago when they thought they were alone in the boys’ locker room.”

“What?” Calum shrieked in an embarrassingly high-pitched voice, his eyes going wide.

Ashton’s roaring laughter was probably even heard on the other side of the planet. “I’m not even questioning what you were doing in the boys’ locker room. Spill, what did they do?”

“I’m not sure if I want to know, to be honest,” Calum protested.

“Well, it was very nice to look at,” Lynn replied, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t gross or anything. They were just making out against a wall - it’s probably nothing you two haven’t done yet. And about me sneaking into the boys’ locker room: I just wanted to get my little brother’s gym bag. He keeps forgetting it there after football practise on Fridays.”

“Did they notice you?” Ashton asked with a huge grin on his face. “Because if they didn’t, we should totally act as if we don’t know about them being a thing now.”

Lynn started to smirk as well. “They didn’t see me, and I totally agree with you. It’ll be so much more fun if they keep trying to hide it from us.”

“I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to not rub it into Michael’s face,” Calum said, and he seemed so awfully delighted that Ashton kind of wanted to smack a kiss on his lips and tell him how hot he looked with that smug expression on his face.

“Oh come on, it’ll be so worth it!”

“Lynn’s right!” Ashton nodded without hesitation. “I seriously can’t wait for our next band practise tonight. It’s going to be hilarious!”

“Can I come?” Lynn all but pleaded with puppy eyes. “Pleeease?”

Calum shrugged. “Sure. We’re meeting at my place this time, just be there around seven. Maybe bring some popcorn, because we’ll definitely be needing it.”

“I should’ve brought popcorn to school,” Lynn half-whispered at Calum about thirty minutes later, when they were sitting in class and watching Michael and Luke who were very obviously failing not to stare at each other the entire time.

Calum couldn’t quite decide whether to laugh or facepalm. “Yeah, it’s unbelievable. Do you think they’re going to make it to lunch without drooling all over the floor?”

“Probably not.”

“Lynn, Calum. Would you like to share your thoughts with the rest of the class?” their teacher suddenly snarled at them, causing them both to jump slightly in their seats and then shake their heads simultaneously. “Then stop talking,” she added with a stern look.

Calum tried not to roll his eyes at her. “Yeah, sorry.”

“Seriously,” she continued and knitted her eyebrows together, “it can’t be that hard to pay attention during my lesson! – Michael, would you please turn around, for God’s sake? I have no idea what you’re staring at, but I’m sure it won’t help you pass this class.”

“Huh?” Michael blurted out while slowly turning around, and then he blinked at her in confusion. “What?”

She looked like she wanted to strangle him. “Do you ever listen, Michael? I don’t care if you find school boring; you have to start focusing on the important things in life!”

“ _Well_ ,” he said after a moment of silence and raised his eyebrows challengingly, “then maybe you should start telling us some of that important stuff.”

Next to him, Calum let out a frustrated groan. Sometimes he really wanted to strangle his best friend, too.

“Alright, that’s it. Detention after school,” their teacher growled. “And no more interruptions from any of you kids, or I will send you to detention as well!”

“Luke,” Niall whispered five minutes later while elbowing his friend who’d just dropped his head onto the table. “Are you crazy?!”

“Fuck off,” he heard Luke’s muffled voice. “I’m tired, let me sleep.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Niall said with wide eyes, and Liam just gaped at Luke incredulously.

“What is going on there?” their teacher asked harshly. “Luke, why aren’t you paying attention?”

“I’m tired,” Luke repeated without moving the tiniest bit.

Their teacher looked like she wanted to set something on fire. “And I don’t care! Detention after school – and if you don’t lift your head off that goddamn table within the next ten seconds, I’ll give you detention for the rest of the year!”

“Did you see that?” Calum asked Lynn as soon as the bell rang.

“Of course I did. It’s almost as if they both wanted to get detention. But why?!”

“Not a clue,” Calum replied while looking at his best friend who had already gone back to staring across the room, right at Luke. “But I’m going to find out. Did you hear them say anything in the locker room?”

“Nope, they were too busy doing something else. Maybe they talked later though, I didn’t stay very long. Two or three minutes, at the most. Okay, maybe four or five. – Don’t give me that look, it was really hot!”

 

_~ flashback ~_

“Did you get my text?”

“Otherwise I wouldn’t be here, Michael. Why the hell are we meeting in the locker room?”

Michael’s lips began to curve into a smirk. “Because nobody’s going to catch us here.”

“Are you sure? Anyone could walk in on us …”

“Nope, the first PE classes today are in the afternoon. Now come here, I’ve missed you.”

“Aww,” Luke said only half-mockingly and practically threw himself at his boyfriend. “Missed you, too.” He was just going to ignore the fact that they’d spent nearly the entire weekend together – he couldn’t help it, he’d missed Michael as soon as they’d parted ways the day before.

“We could skip class, you know,” Michael whispered against his lips while burying his hands in Luke’s hair and pushing him up against the wall. “We could stay here for a while and keep doing this …”

“We shouldn’t,” Luke mumbled back but didn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around Michael’s body and hold him tight.

Michael looked at him with a pout. “Come on, Lukey. Pleeease?”

Luke rolled his eyes at him but couldn’t stop his lips from breaking into a fond smile. “Are you trying to get us in trouble?”

“Absolutely,” Michael replied, his smirk now threatening to split his face in half. “That’ll get us into detention, and I kind of like the idea of you and me in the library together. We could, you know. Do stuff.”

Luke felt himself blush at that thought. He knew damn well what Michael was trying to imply, and it made his head actually spin a little. “Shut up,” he murmured eventually, slightly turning his head and hiding his face in the crook of Michael’s neck. “We’re not going to have sex in the library, Michael.”

“So you prefer sex in the locker room then.”

Luke was about to protest, but suddenly Michael’s lips were back on his own and his tongue was forcing its way into Luke’s mouth, and that was all it took for Luke’s brain to completely shut down. He let out a loud gasp and started thrusting his hips forward, and Michael immediately threw his head back and moaned Luke’s name.

They were making out for a while, until they were both hard and desperately searching for more friction, and it was Michael who decided to take this a step further and practically yanked Luke’s pants down. “Fuck,” Luke whimpered at the sight of his boyfriend getting on his knees and wrapping his plumb pink lips around the swollen tip of his cock. “Fuck, Michael, hurry up … What if we get caught, oh my God, I would die of embarrassment …”

“Nobody will catch us, now shut up,” Michael said matter-of-factly around his dick and started to suck at the tip.

Luke’s eyes fluttered shut. “Fuck,” he repeated, tangling his hands into Michael’s bright blue hair and pulling at it. “Fuck, Mike. Faster, please. We don’t have much time, shit … If we’re both late for class, then everybody will know …”

“Oh my God, will you just _shut up_?” Michael whined after pulling back a little. “I can’t concentrate like this!”

Luke bit his lips. “Sorry. I’m just, this is a bit too much of a thrill for me.”

Michael snorted. “Liar. You love making out with me in public. Do you think I didn’t notice how much it turned you on the last couple of times?”

Luke’s entire face looked like it was about to explode. “Shut up. I didn’t. I just … well, it was different! I knew that nobody was going to walk in on us like _this_ , with no walls or doors around us!”

“Fiiine,” Michael sighed while scrambling to his feet and trying to make his hair look less rumpled. “Now you’ve killed the mood anyway. Can I at least touch you in my room after school, or is that too much to ask for as well?”

His words caused Luke to frown a little. “Are you mad at me?”

“No. No, not really.” Michael let out a sigh and then shook his head. “I’m sorry, this was a stupid idea. I get it that you don’t want to get caught, and I’ll respect that from now on. No more making out in public, I get it. Let’s be friends when other people are around, and boyfriends when we’re alone. That’s totally okay.”

“You don’t seem very okay with it,” Luke blurted out, his frown now visibly deepening, but Michael just shook his head once again and pressed a quick kiss to his lips.

“I promise, I’m fine. And I have to admit, there are way nicer places than a locker room or a library.”

Luke cleared his throat. “Why were you talking about getting detention together anyway? We could always go to the library and pretend to study there, and then sneak off to the back of the room, when nobody looks …”

“Well, this week we can’t. The library is closed due to renovation, but I heard that if you get detention, they’ll make you help them,” Michael explained with a shrug. “See you in class, Lukey,” he added, his lips twitching into a genuine smile, and then he was gone before Luke could even open his mouth.

_~ end of flashback ~_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I'm SO SORRY that I couldn't update earlier. Please keep reading this story - I promise to continue! I'm just so busy, plus, English isn't my first language and sometimes it takes me ages to write a new chapter. Please be patient with me, thank you! xx


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that it took me so long to finish this chapter. It's shorter than I planned, but don't worry, there will be more (hopefully soon). I just didn't want to keep you guys waiting even longer for an update, so here it is.

**23.**

“You know,” Niall said, balancing his tray stuffed with food through the cafeteria and throwing a wide grin in Luke’s direction, “you don’t seem very tired anymore, mate. Don’t know why you almost fell asleep during the first lesson.”

Luke shrugged and tried not to blush. Once again, he failed miserably at that. “You guys know that I’m not a morning person. I do better at this time of the day. I mean, concentrating on the stuff we have to do in class kind of wakes me up?”

“Oh, right,” Liam replied dryly while putting his tray onto a table and pulling a chair back, “because you were paying sooo much attention in class today, Luke.”

“Shut up,” Luke muttered defensively, and next to him Niall was already cracking up. “I’m just, I … oh, just leave me alone.”

Liam shrugged. He looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh, too. “Sure, anything you want. Speaking of desires, where’s your arch enemy? He kept looking at you the entire morning.”

“Shut up,” Luke repeated, this time in a more high-pitched voice, and Niall barked out another roar of laughter. “He didn’t! That’s bullshit, we -”

“You hate each other, yeah, of course.” Liam rolled his eyes at him and then took a bite of his sandwich. “You keep saying that, but come on, man. Nobody actually believes that anymore. Oh, and by the way - you were staring at him, too! I mean, you don’t have to confess your love for him or anything, but you could at least be a bit more honest with us. We’re your best friends, aren’t we?”

“Exactly,” Niall agreed. He wasn’t laughing anymore but looking at Luke with a serious face instead. Luke just gaped at them, his mouth slightly hanging open and his eyes widening in shock, and to lighten the mood a bit, Niall decided to joke, “Well, of course you can confess your love for him, too, if you want to. It’s pretty obvious anyway.”

It didn’t lighten the mood in the slightest. Luke’s head was about to explode and he wanted nothing more than to run out of the cafeteria and hide somewhere, preferably until his graduation day. How the hell did his friends know? Was his behaviour really that obvious?!

“I’m not … I mean …” Shit, he couldn’t do this. He couldn’t lie to his best friends anymore, it just wasn’t fair to them. But he couldn’t tell them the truth either – not now, not here in the middle of the cafeteria.

“Hey, can we sit with you guys?”

Luke’s eyes widened even further when he heard Calum’s voice. _Shit._ “Sure,” Liam said without hesitation, giving Calum a nod and then smirking a little at Michael who was, once again, standing behind his best friend and peeking over his shoulder.

“Thanks,” Calum grinned back before sitting down and tugging at the sleeve of Michael’s shirt.

“Um, okay,” Michael mumbled and quickly sat down as well. His green eyes were meeting Luke’s blue ones, and a split second later his plump pink lips curved into a tiny smile that made Luke’s heart almost skip a beat.

“Soo,” Calum said, still grinning while stuffing pasta into his mouth, “Michael, Luke, we need to talk.”

Luke nearly choked on his food. “What?” he squeaked in an embarrassingly high-pitched voice while Michael was blushing so hard that Niall almost snorted his half chewed sandwich across the table.

“About tonight,” Calum clarified, his lips stretching into an even wider grin. “Band practise, remember?”

Luke’s heart was beating a mile a minute. He was pretty sure that his face was just as red as Michael’s. “Oh, um, okay,” he managed to stutter in an embarrassingly bad attempt to cover up the fact that he was freaking out right now.

Niall was the one to save him from any further embarrassment. Kind of. “Hold on, band practise? What did I miss?” he asked curiously. But then he suddenly frowned. “Wait, what about the test tomorrow? We agreed to study today!”

“We’re starting a band,” Calum explained, smiling happily. “The three of us and Luke’s brother.”

Niall’s whole face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Sounds great, I’ll be your number one fan! But we still need to study, Luke. My mum’s going to kill me if I fail that stupid test.”

“Actually,” Michael said, a sudden grin appearing on his face, “we could all study together after school. I think that would be nice. Really nice.”

Luke almost kicked him under the table and Calum raised an eyebrow at his best friend. “After school? You mean at the same time when you and Luke both have detention? – You know, I still don’t get it, you seemed so determined to get yourselves in detention. You’re both either incredibly stupid or incredibly smart, and I’m not sure which one would be worse.”

While Luke was failing miserably at hiding the visible blush on his cheeks, Michael just shrugged nonchalantly. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Cal. Not my fault that Hemmings here was too tired to pay attention.”

Before he could stop himself from doing so, Luke heard himself blurt out, “Well, I didn’t see _you_ pay much attention either, Clifford.”

“Alright, alright,” Calum said while Liam was trying to save Niall from dying of laughter, “we get it, you were both not paying attention to our teachers today. I hate to break it to you, but nobody could possibly miss that.”

Luke silently cursed himself for being such an idiot. He should probably just keep his mouth shut from now on and –

“Everyone knows that I don’t ever pay attention in class,” Michael declared with a little shrug. “Nothing new there, really. I wonder why blondie here decided to upset our teacher though …”

Luke wanted to strangle him. Kind of. He also wanted to throw himself at him and make out with him for three days straight, but unfortunately that wasn’t an acceptable option. Damnit.

Calum let out an exaggerated groan, but his lips were twitching suspiciously and then he spontaneously decided to tease them mercilessly, “Oh my God, you two are the worst. Just skip the foreplay and get a room!”

This led Niall – and Liam as well – into another fit of breathless laughter and caused Luke’s face to heat up drastically. _Fuck._ Maybe he should just dig a hole and crawl inside, along with the last remaining tiny piece of his dignity – because if his friends were already mocking him _now_ , there was no way he was going to survive after telling them that he was actually dating his former arch enemy.

Said arch enemy, however, somehow managed to keep a straight face. “Don’t assume things just because you’re fucking his brother, Cal. It doesn’t mean that everyone has to hook up with a member of the Hemmings family.”

And, okay, Luke knew that his boyfriend was only saying that to cover things up, but it still hurt a little. He tried his best to ignore the aching feeling and not let it show on his face too much, but if the knowing looks his friends were giving him was anything to go by, he failed miserably at that.

“Yeah, that’s ridiculous,” he mumbled, turning towards Calum. “What did you want to talk about in the first place?”

“Oh, right, band practise,” Calum replied after what felt like an eternal moment of silence, during which he’d probably considered whether to comment on Luke’s slightly trembling voice or not. “I just wanted to tell you that Lynn’s going to be there. She asked if she could come over and I thought it would be nice to have her around – I mean, Lily already told us that we sound great together, but she’d probably do that even if we sucked. You can’t really rely on an eight-year-old to –“

“Who the hell gave you the right to decide that?!” Michael’s almost angry voice interrupted him all of a sudden, causing Calum to stop mid-sentence and look at his best friend with raised eyebrows.

Luke wished he could stop himself from turning his head towards Michael, but he couldn’t. The blue-haired boy seemed just as tense as his voice had sounded, his eyes practically murdering Calum right now, and Luke just didn’t get it. Was there something he’d missed? Why was Michael acting like that?

“Why are you yelling at me?” Calum said in a surprisingly calm tone. “I was just being nice, there’s nothing wrong with that. Besides, Ash agreed, too!”

“Oh, great,” Michael muttered sarcastically. “Are you always going to be on his side from now on?”

Now Calum rolled his eyes at him. “Alright, drama queen, shut up.”

The noise Michael made after that sounded like a mixture of frustration and anger. “You shut up!” he grunted while rising from his chair, and a moment later he was gone, leaving the other boys speechless.

Eventually Liam was the first one to speak again, “Wow, what just happened?”

“He doesn’t seem to like Lynn for some reason,” Calum replied, looking straight at Luke with an awfully knowing expression in his eyes.

“Why would he –“ Luke fell silent as finally everything started to make sense to him. Shit. “Oh. Um, well. She’s going to prove him wrong and he’ll have no choice but to accept the fact that she’s really nice, and, um, everything will be alright.” Oh God, he was rambling, wasn’t he?

“I don’t know, mate. He seemed pretty jealous,” Niall blurted out what the others had probably been thinking anyway, causing Luke’s face to heat up once again. Fuck.

“Yeah, he did.” Calum was grinning like an idiot now and Luke was really tempted to kick him or dump his food over his head or something like that. Ashton would kill him, though, so he settled for his only other option …

“Whatever. We should go back to class, break’s almost over.” He tried his best to sound totally unaffected by his friends’ comments, but his voice was slightly trembling again. He really had to talk to Michael as soon as possible. Why the hell would he still be jealous after Luke had made it pretty clear that he didn’t like Lynn more than any other purely platonic friend?

He kept staring at Michael during their afternoon classes, his eyes practically trying to burn holes into his boyfriend’s neck. Michael, however, didn’t turn towards him this time, not even once, and in the very second the bell rang he jumped from his chair and stormed out of the classroom.

By the time Luke had said goodbye to his friends and made his way to the library, he was _furious_. He and Michael were the only students to have detention and as soon as they were sent into the room to help clean or carry books or whatever the hell they were supposed to do – Luke hadn’t listened, being too busy shooting death glares at Michael – the younger boy grabbed Michael’s arm and dragged him to the back of the room.

“What the hell?” Michael said, trying to squirm away from him.

Luke pushed him against one of the shelves. “Shut up, Mike. You wanted detention with me, that’s what we got.”

Michael let out a snort. “Yeah, but that was before Calum decided to be a dickhead and invite stupid Lynn to our band practise!”

“First of all,” Luke hissed between gritted teeth while gripping Michael’s waist and squeezing it hard, “I’m not Calum, so don’t you dare take it out on me! Second, Lynn’s not stupid. She’s really nice, and I like her, but only as a friend, goddammit! You’re the one that I want, Michael, so stop being jealous, for fuck’s sake!”

“Leave me alone, Hemmings,” Michael muttered, his eyes not meeting Luke’s. He looked almost sad all of a sudden, like he couldn’t believe that anyone in the whole world would actually like him, and within half a second Luke’s anger was completely gone.

“Fuck,” he breathed out, bringing his hands up to Michael’s face and cupping his cheeks. “Fuck, Michael, why is it so hard for you to understand that you’re the one I’m in love with?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you think? :)
> 
> A special thanks goes to my [lovely friend](http://archiveofourown.org/users/keepcalm_and_love_muke) who's been encouraging me for the past 12 months (because that's when I started writing this story). Actually, she was the one who gave me the whole inspiration for it, so you should totally go and read her wonderful little [Muke story](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4680425) as well. :)


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so short, I'm sorry. I hope you like it though.

**24.**

“Fuck,” he breathed out, bringing his hands up to Michael’s face and cupping his cheeks. “Fuck, Michael, why is it so hard for you to understand that you’re the one I’m in love with?”

Michael’s eyes widened incredulously. “What?” he whispered after an awfully long moment of dead silence, his eyes being glued to Luke’s face now. “What did you just say?”

Luke’s heart was beating a mile a minute. He couldn’t believe that he’d actually done it, that he’d actually told him that he was _in love with him_. He’d just blurted it out without thinking, letting his heart take control over his mouth. Suddenly it seemed so clear to him – yes, he was in love, he was in love with Michael Clifford. He’d probably been in love with him for a while, even back then when he used to think that he hated him. But why the hell did he just tell him? It was too fast forward, they hadn’t even been dating for half a week now …

“I love you,” Luke heard himself say. He was speaking the truth, he was sure of it, and he just couldn’t stop himself from saying it over and over again. “Michael, I love you. I really fucking love you, I’m –“

“Fuck,” Michael choked out. “Luke, _fuck_.” Then he tangled his hands into Luke’s hair and pulled him closer, pressing their lips together for a second and then suddenly pulling back. “I love you, too,” he said quietly, causing Luke’s heart to beat so fast that he almost felt a bit dizzy. “I just … I mean, you’re telling me not to be jealous, but on the other hand I have to act like we’re just friends, if that … I get it that you’re scared, I really don’t want to pressure you, Luke, I just …”

“I’m sorry,” Luke murmured against his lips. “You’re right, I’m being stupid.”

“I never said that.”

Luke let out a soft chuckle. “Yeah, you did. At least a hundred times.”

“True,” Michael had to admit, curving his lips into a small smile. “But that was just me being an idiot. You’re not stupid, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I just want everyone to know that.”

Luke’s eyes widened at that. “Really? Michael, that’s … I don’t know what to say. Shit, I’m so sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. We have time, don’t worry,” Michael tried to reassure him immediately, but it didn’t stop the guilt from creeping up in Luke’s chest and settling there with a tight, strong grip.

“Michael, no,” he protested. “It’s not okay! I didn’t realise that it was so important to you to tell everyone, and I’m sorry. If I knew how much it means to you, I would’ve … well, I wouldn’t have been such a jerk.”

“You’re not a jerk,” Michael said quietly while pulling him into his arms and pressing a quick kiss to his lips. “People are different, you know. Just because I want everyone to know about us, doesn’t mean that you have to want it, too. I understand that you’re more careful about these things, and I’m not going to pressure you anymore. It’s okay if we wait, but maybe we can at least act like friends and not pretend to hate each other anymore? And for fuck’s sake, please stop apologising to me!”

“Sorry,” Luke blurted out – and let out a defeated little laugh as soon as he realised what he’d just done. “I mean, yeah, you’re right. I should talk less.”

Michael shook his head. “Talking is good. It’s important to let each other know how we feel about certain things. And we definitely shouldn’t be fighting over stuff, we’ve done that enough in the past.”

“Okay, look,” Luke sighed, nuzzling closer and wrapping his arms tightly around Michael’s waist. “I want you to know that I’m not ashamed of being with you, alright? I mean, sure, I’ll be embarrassed when we tell our friends, because there’s no way they won’t make fun of us, but –“

“Exactly,” someone chuckled behind them, nearly causing Luke to pass out right there. “But you guys are really cute together, so we’ll probably show some mercy at some point and stop mocking you.”

“Uh,” Michael said while releasing his boyfriend from his arms and turning around to face the boy who was standing there. “How did you get in here, Niall? The library’s closed this week, you only get in if you have detention …”

“Said I forgot a book here last week and needed to get it back,” Niall answered with a little shrug, grinning from ear to ear. “Luke, you’re a bit pale to be honest. Are you alright, mate? Look, I’m totally fine with you two dating, and so are the others.”

“What?” Luke finally managed to choke out. “What do you mean, _so are the others_?!?”

Niall stopped grinning in favour of raising an eyebrow at him and then rolling his eyes. “Come on, everybody knows you two don’t actually hate each other. It’s okay, Luke, really. How many times do I have to tell you that you don’t have to worry about telling people that you like him? I mean, it’s your life, you can do whatever the hell you want to do. If you want to be with Michael, you shouldn’t let your fear stop you.”

“I like you,” Michael said, sending Niall a grateful little smile. “Not as much as I like _you_ , though,” he quickly added towards Luke with a small laugh, now looking at him expectantly. “What do you think, babe? You ready to tell our friends about us? We don’t have to walk down the hallway holding hands or anything, I just … I don’t want to lie to my friends. Well, to Cal, since he’s my only friend, but –“

“Don’t say that, Michael. I can be your friend, too,” Niall interrupted him, causing them both to smile at him.

“Thanks man. That actually means a lot,” Michael replied, his smile becoming even more genuine now.

“Okay,” Luke murmured, hesitating only for a split second before touching Michael’s hand and interlacing their fingers. “I guess we can do that.”

“Awww,” Niall chuckled, throwing a wide grin at them and then disappearing out of their sight with a little wave of his hand.

“I’m proud of you,” Michael said happily and pulled Luke close to press a gentle kiss to his lips. “I promise to protect you from any stupid comments that might be made tonight.”

Luke couldn’t stop his lips from breaking into a fond little smile. “My hero,” he laughed quietly, squeezing his hand and resting his head against Michael’s shoulder for a moment. “You’re not mad that we didn’t get to make out in here, are you?” he added as an afterthought, earning an only half-heartedly suppressed smirk in response, “Who said we couldn’t make out now? There’s still plenty of time left …”

Luke was tempted to shove him and tell him to shut up, but on the other hand, Michael actually had a point there. So why waste time with arguing, right?

“Okay,” he said while already closing the distance between them and bringing their lips together in a sweet kiss.

“Good.” Michael pushed his fingers in Luke’s hair and pulled him as close as possible, already darting out his tongue and licking into Luke’s mouth, which earned him a soft moan from the other boy in response. “Because this is kinda hot,” he added with a smirk, already sounding a little breathless.

“Yeah?” Luke asked, sounding breathless, too, and his lips were curving into an almost wicked grin now. “I think it would be even hotter if we did _this_ ,” he whispered hoarsely, pushing his hips forward, and Michael let out a strangled noise and grinded back without hesitation.

“Fuck, Luke,” he whimpered into his mouth. Then he shoved him into the nearest bookshelf, causing a few books to slide out and topple to the ground, but neither of them even cared. “You know that this could get us in big trouble, right?” he murmured into his ear before starting to suck bruises into the sensitive skin of Luke’s neck.

Luke let out a quiet gasp. “Yeah, I don’t care. Keep going.”

“Adventurous, huh?” Michael grasped the collar of Luke’s shirt to pull it down, and then dragged his lips down to the now exposed skin there. “I like it.”

“Less talking, more kissing,” Luke decided while tangling his hands in Michael’s hair, and for once, Michael didn’t even think about arguing with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry it took me so long this time, and I hope you enjoyed reading anyway. I’ve just been super busy with the new job I got a couple months ago (and now I lost it, life really sucks sometimes), and to be honest, there was so much shit I had to deal with this year that I didn’t feel quite inspired for this story during the past two or three months. But don’t worry, I still love writing it, and now I probably have a bit more time again.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys had a lovely Christmas, and I wish you all a Happy New Year. If you’re looking for something else to read until my next update, how about you go check out my latest one-chaptered fics? They’re called [These chemicals moving between us ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918618/) and [The air you breathe is haunting me](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5376065/) and I’m really glad that at least I’ve had a little inspiration left for something during the past months.
> 
> (And no, I haven't read the Rolling Stones article, and no, I'm not planning on reading it either. I'm not here for the drama, and all I'm saying is, never trust written interviews. Never trust what the media claims to be true.)


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year! :)

**25.**

“So,“ Ashton said while sliding his fingers under the fabric of Calum’s shirt and starting to caress the sensitive skin there, “what do you think, babe? Should we risk it?”

Calum, being spread underneath him on his bed, responded with a soft moan. “We don’t have much time, Ash. The others will be here in less than half an hour.”

Ashton’s lips broke into a small pout. “I left work early for _nothing_? – Just kidding,” he added with a little laugh and practically threw himself at him, ending up on top of him and nuzzling his face into the crook of Calum’s neck. “This is very nice, too.“

“Yeah, but it’s not enough,“ Calum replied, blushing at his own confession almost immediately. “I mean, uh, I’ve been thinking about you the whole day, and … uhm, we could try to be quick?“

“Well,“ Ashton said in a lower voice, his lips twitching suspiciously, “what do you want me to do, babe? Maybe this?“ He started trailing small kisses down Calum’s bare chest after pulling his shirt over his head in one swift motion, and it made Calum moan again.

“Yeah, that feels good. I … I want you to keep going, but we don’t have much time. Hurry up, yeah?” the younger boy demanded a little breathlessly already.

“Okay then. Wanna tell me what to do next?” Ashton smirked against the warmth of Calum’s stomach, his question causing Calum’s hips to buck up a little in anticipation.

“I … I want you to jerk me off. Love your hands, they’re so big. Can you … can you jerk us both off at the, uh, same time? And I want to kiss you,” he mumbled and, for some reason, blushed even further.

Ashton did as he was told without hesitation. As soon as he’d pulled down their pants, he wrapped one of his hands around their cocks, squeezing a little at first and then stroking them in a hard, fast pace that had them both moan loudly. Calum tangled his hands into Ashton’s wild curls and pulled him close, pressing their lips together and sliding his tongue into his boyfriend’s mouth, and it felt so good, so incredibly amaz-

“Sorry, we’re a bit early, but we – oh for God’s sake! Next time lock the damn door!”

Calum wanted to die. From his position under Ashton’s half naked body he couldn’t see who’d just entered his room, but he’d recognised his best friend’s voice at any time. And to be honest, Michael’s voice sounded just as horrified as Calum felt right now.

“Get out,” Ashton grunted without stopping the movements of his hand, and Calum wanted to die even a bit more. This was so embarrassing - but on the other hand, he almost felt a bit turned on by the fact that they were being watched. Oh God, it couldn’t get any worse.

“Okay, yeah, we’ll … uh, we’ll wait downstairs,” another voice stuttered out – probably Luke, Calum thought – and then the door was being shut.

“Don’t forget to use protection,” Michael yelled from outside, and, okay, Calum was so going to kill him for that. Right after reaching his orgasm – which didn’t take much longer, Ashton’s big hand was absolutely amazing.

“Fuck, Ash,” Calum choked out and came with a last guttural moan. Ashton reached his own climax only seconds later, moaning Calum’s name and collapsing onto the bed with Calum’s body still lying beneath him, and Calum kind of wanted to stay like this forever. Damn their friends who were waiting for them downstairs.

“Cal? I’m really sorry that I just, uh, kept going,“ Ashton murmured suddenly, lifting his head a little and looking at him apogoletically. “I should have stopped when they came in, but I just got so lost in the moment ...“

“It’s okay. Was my own fault, I forgot to lock the door,“ Calum mumbled while pushing his fingers back in Ashton’s hair and slowly stroking it. “Besides, I bet it looked really hot. Nobody should complain about seeing your naked butt.“

“Shut up,“ Ashton said, actually blushing a little and therefore causing Calum to smirk.

“I can’t believe I get to see this. You look really cute when you’re all embarrassed,“ the younger boy couldn’t stop himself from teasing.

“No I’m not,“ Ashton protested, a small giggle leaving his mouth unvoluntarily. “We should probably get up,“ he added after a minute or so, letting out an exaggerated sigh. “I don‘t want to move though. I really like cuddling with you.“

“Me too, Ash. You’re such a great guy, I can’t believe I got so lucky.“ Calum was smiling widely now; however, Ashton didn’t miss the slighty audible concern in his voice. They really didn’t have time to discuss things at the moment, but Ashton just couldn’t bring himself to ignore his own thoughts.

“Cal, what’s wrong?“ he asked quietly. “Please don’t tell me you’re having doubts about our relationship. I mean, no, that sounded wrong … If you have any doubts, please do tell me. We can figure it out together, alright?“

“I’m not having doubts about our relationship,“ Calum assured him quickly. “I want to be with you, I promise. I just … I really can’t believe you chose me to be your boyfriend. I’m younger than you, and you’re much more attractive than I am, and it’s just … it’s not easy for me, you know? Sometimes I’m really self-critical I guess.“

Ashton stared at him incredulously. “Calum Hood,“ he said eventually, grabbing Calum’s face and pressing a quick kiss to his lips, “you are the most beautiful boy in the world and I’m so, so lucky to have you in my life. I wouldn’t trade our relationship for anything else in the world, I promise. Please believe me, Cal.“

His words, sounding so pure and honest, left Calum speechless. Wow, this was definitely not what he’d expected to hear, but it made his heart swell with happiness in his chest. Ashton wouldn’t lie to him, right? Of course he wouldn’t, he had absolutely no reason to. Suddenly everything felt a lot easier to Calum.

“Ash … I’m sorry.“

“No, don’t apologise,“ Ashton murmured, slotting their lips together again and deepening the kiss only seconds later. Calum let a little sigh slip past his lips and wrapped his legs around Ashton’s bare waist, keeping him close. He felt so safe in Ashton’s arms, safer than he’d ever felt before.

They stayed like this for a while, wrapped up in each other’s presence and sharing tender kisses. And if it wasn’t for the sudden banging on the door, they’d probably have stayed in bed for the rest of their lives.

“Have you finished yet?“ Michael’s voice sounded slightly annoyed. “This is supposed to be band practise, not any other kind of practise.“

“Sorry,“ Calum mumbled a few minutes later when they were all sitting together – Michael and Luke sat as far away from the bed as possible – but couldn’t help the small giggle that escaped his throat.

“You should be,“ Michael grumbled back, wrinkling his nose in fake disgust. “We don’t want to see that ever again.“

Ashton rolled his eyes. “It was just a handjob and you didn’t even see anything besides my naked arse. People have seen worse, stop being so childish.“

“I’m not being childish,” Michael protested, sounding a little offended now. Then he turned towards Luke, “Aren’t you going to say something about this?”

“Well,” Luke replied with a shrug, “he’s my brother, I’ve seen him naked before. It’s not like they forced us to watch, really. As long as they lock the door next time, I don’t see a problem here.”

“I can’t believe this,” Michael muttered, glaring at all three of them accusingly while Calum and Ashton tried their hardest to contain their laughter. “Are you guys ganging up on me?”

“We would never,” Calum said, his lips curled up into a mocking grin.

“Never ever,” Luke added with a light chuckle, causing Michael to roll his eyes at him and snort, “Yeah, that’s convincing coming from you.”

“Idiot,” Luke said and felt himself blush at the realisation that he’d probably been staring at him with a big, stupid smile on his face for the past two minutes. Nobody could possibly have missed that. Oops.

Ashton looked like he wanted to throw in a pretty dumb comment, but then the door swung open and Lynn entered the room. “Hi guys,” she greeted them with a wide smile, only to be interrupted by Michael, “How the fuck did you get into the house?”

“Calum’s mum let me in,” she answered, obviously pretending not to notice the slightly offensive tone in his voice. “She’s really nice, by the way. I’m not too early, am I?”

“No,” Michael replied quickly, glaring at Luke who’d elbowed him with a warning glance. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be offensive. I, uhm …”

“You were just surprised?” Luke offered, the warning look still being visible on his face. He totally ignored the fact that Ashton and Calum were raising their eyebrows at them knowingly.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m just surprised. Because, uh, Calum’s mum let us in fifteen minutes ago when she was just leaving the house. I didn’t think she would be back by now.” It was almost funny to watch Michael stutter out his dumb explanation, and luckily Lynn seemed to decide on leaving it at that.

“Okay,” she said, obviously not believing a single word but smiling anyway. “So, I’m here because I want to hear you guys sing. What are you waiting for?”

“Oh, right. Band practise, of course.” Ashton rose to his feet and crossed the room to get the cajon he’d brought with him, while Michael and Luke picked up their guitars and began to strum a few chords.

“I wish I could play an instrument,” Lynn told them, watching Calum busy himself with his bass guitar and then admiring the way Michael and Luke’s fingers were moving over the strings. “It seems like so much fun.”

Ashton sent her a genuine smile. “It’s never too late to start something new. – Right, Luke?” he added as an afterthought, a knowing smirk playing on his lips now that caused his brother’s face to heat up within seconds.

“Uhm, I … I guess?” he mumbled while trying to hide his burning cheeks.

Ashton’s smirk grew even wider. “Are you blushing?”

“No!” Luke protested, his fingers fumbling with the strings of his guitar to keep themselves from grabbing Michael’s hand and squeezing it, seeking protection from him.

Calum barked out a laugh. “Dude, you’re definitely blushing. I bet you’ll blush even more if we keep telling you that trying new things can be surprisingly … satisfying. And I bet Michael agrees with that.”

“Shut up,” Michael said, now blushing a little himself. “We hate you both, dickheads.”

“Yeah,” Luke agreed, suddenly unable to stop himself from curving his lips into a tiny smile. “That’s what you two are. Dickheads.”

They didn’t even seem to be offended by that. “So you think Ash and I are stupid, and the two of you aren’t? Since when do you share an opinion?” Calum teased, waggling his eyebrows at them suggestively.

“Pretty sure they share more than that,” Ashton said dryly, and the way Michael and Luke’s faces were getting even redder almost sent Lynn to the floor.

“Oh my God, this is amazing. I’m so glad I’m here, it’s even better than I pictured it in my head,” she exclaimed, shaking with laughter.

Luke blinked at her in utterly confusion. “Wait, what? Why exactly are you here? You said you wanted to hear us sing …”

“I do. But watching you lovebirds try to hide whatever is going on between you is even better. – Come on, don’t give me that look. Locker rooms aren’t exactly a safe place to keep secrets, boys. Don’t worry though, I’m pretty sure I was the only one who walked in on you.”

“Oh my God,” Michael said incredulously, his eyes almost bulging out of his head. Meanwhile, Luke looked like he was about to pass out. “I can’t believe this! You saw us?! And … you told Calum and Ashton, didn’t you? Of course you did, that’s why they let you come over, so that the three of you could laugh in our faces!”

“Michael, calm down,” Ashton tried to keep the situation from getting out of control. “We just wanted to have a little fun, alright?”

“No. No, it’s not alright! You’re supposed to be our friends!” Michael practically yelled at them, shoving his guitar off his lap and jumping to his feet. He wasn’t even sure why he got so angry all of a sudden, but he just couldn’t stop himself. Besides, he’d promised Luke to protect him, and right now, Luke really looked like he needed to be protected, if the horrified expression in his wide blue eyes was anything to go by.

Ashton shook his head. “Don’t be ridiculous. We _are_ your friends.”

“Oh really? Then why the hell didn’t you just tell us that you knew instead of making fun of us? That’s not what friends do!”

While Ashton seemed to search for an answer in his brain, Calum just rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right, because you guys have been so honest with us. You would’ve just denied it, like all the other times you’ve lied to us about being, well, whatever you two are. Boyfriends? Friends with benefits? Seriously, we don’t care, we’re still your friends and we’re not going to judge you. Just be honest with us, for God’s sake!”

“He’s right,” Luke said quietly. “We haven’t been honest with you, but that’s mostly my fault, because I‘m the one who was scared and confused and didn’t know what to do. But I do now,” he added in an even lower voice, taking a step towards Michael and wrapping his arms around him tightly.

Michael hugged him back without hesitation. It was the best feeling in the world, and Luke wasn’t going to let anyone take this away from him. Ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be 1-2 more chapters. Hope you enjoyed this one, tell me what you think! :)
> 
> For those of you following me on tumblr, don't be confused, I changed my URL to [clemmingscashton](http://clemmingscashton.tumblr.com). I also have two side blogs now, you might wanna go and check them out: my [movie blog](http://leosmindpalace.tumblr.com) and my [personal blog](http://mylittlelondonheart.tumblr.com/).


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going to be the second to last chapter of this story. Enjoy. :)

**26.**

“Hey, Luke. You alright? You’re not mad at us, are you? I’m sorry if we took things too far; we didn’t mean to make fun of you, we just wanted to tease you a bit. And we’re happy for you guys, I promise,” Ashton said apologetically when they were getting out of his car two hours later.

Luke gave a little shrug in response. “It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. Listen, I’m really sorry. Come here, little bro.” Ashton took a step towards him and wrapped his arms around him, hugging him tightly. “We shouldn’t have done that. We just … we wanted you to be honest with us, I guess. But it’s okay to have secrets; you don’t have to tell anyone about your relationship if you don’t want to.”

“I want to,” Luke murmured against his neck. “I don’t want to hide, Ash, and neither does Michael. But … I don’t know what to do. I’m still a bit scared.”

“Hey, don’t worry. It’s going to be okay, yeah? Michael is a good guy, he isn’t going to force you out of the closet or whatever.”

Luke was about to open his mouth and give an answer, but at that very moment the front door of their house swung open and they heard their mother call them in. “How was band practice?” she asked a minute later, when they were walking into the living room together, and Luke flashed Ashton a surprised glance.

“You told her about our band?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged, sitting down on the couch where their father was watching a game on television. “That wasn’t supposed to be a secret, was it?”

“I guess not.”

“I think it’s a fantastic idea, as long as you keep up your grades,” their mum told them, sending them both a wide smile. “And you have to promise me that you won’t drop out of school and run off to London or LA to start a music career.”

Luke huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, right, like that could ever happen to us.”

“You never know,” Ashton said, his lips turning into a grin. “We might become the next big rock band.”

“ _Punk_ rock,” Luke corrected him, now grinning, too. “Of course we need a name first, and a facebook page, and – oh, how about a youtube channel?”

Their mum shook her head with a fond smile. “How about you let us talk to your friends‘ parents first? We could invite them over at the weekend to get to know them. How about a barbecue on Saturday?”

“Sounds good,” Calum agreed twelve hours later while shoving a book into his locker and pulling another one out. “I’ll ask my parents tonight. Have you told your parents about, uhm, well …”

“No,” Luke had to admit, blushing a little. “I’m planning on telling them at the weekend, when I can introduce Michael properly. Until then, we’re not telling anyone else.”

“That’s okay, Luke. Listen, I want to apologise for being such a dick yesterday. I’m really sorry.”

“Yeah, you should be,” Michael grumbled, suddenly popping up behind them. “That wasn’t very nice.” Then he turned towards Luke, and almost immediately his lips broke into a wide smile. “Hey there, Hemmings.”

“Hi,” Luke said, smiling back like an idiot. “You missed first period. That’s not what being fashionably late means, you know.”

Michael rolled his eyes at him with a terribly fond expression on his face. “Shut up, you dork.”

“You shut up,” Luke retorted, gently knocking his shoulder into Michael’s. Next to him, Calum let out a disbelieving groan.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Please tell me you’re not going back to insulting each other – because if you do that, I won’t survive it. It’s so exhausting, seriously.”

“I kind of like it,” Michael confessed, his lips curling into a little smirk. “It’s our _thing_.”

“Yeah,” Luke agreed, grinning back with rosy cheeks.

Calum let out a loud whine, which earned him a couple of funny looks from the students standing nearby. He chose to ignore them in favour of complaining to his two friends. “I can’t believe this. You two are the worst, and I don’t want to have to deal with it.” However, his lips were twitching suspiciously now, so Michael just stuck his tongue out at him instead of saying anything rude.

“We’ll keep you out of it,” Luke promised with a little laugh.

“Good,” Calum replied with a shake of his head, turning around and disappearing between the other students since the bell was ringing at that very moment.

“Well,” Luke said, trying to stop himself from smiling again and failing miserably as expected, “if we keep standing here together much longer, someone will probably call an ambulance. You know, in case we’ll be at each other’s throats.”

“I like being at your throat,” Michael told him bluntly, a big smirk threatening to split his face in half.

Luke couldn’t keep himself from blushing a dark shade of red. He just hoped nobody was paying too much attention to them right now; at least the students around them seemed busy swarming into the classrooms. “Shut up, Clifford.”

“Make me?” Michael smirked back, causing Luke to blush even further.

“Later,” he mumbled with heated cheeks, biting down on his lip ring and sucking it into his mouth without really noticing.

Michael, however, noticed very well and immediately leaned slightly forward to whisper into his ear, “You drive me crazy, Luke Hemmings. I wish I could kiss you right now, because you’re so damn hot and I really fucking love you. I bet you’d want that, am I right? I bet I could drag you to the bathroom instead of going to class, and you’d beg me to make you feel good. I bet you’d beg for my mouth on your dick and my fingers in your -“

“God, _Michael_ ,” Luke all but moaned, pushing him away and sagging back against the next best locker. He probably looked like he was about to come any minute – he sure as hell felt like it – and it was all Michael’s fault, goddammit!

“Look,” Michael said, smirking for the what seemed like the hundredths time today. “Everyone’s gone, we’re all alone. I could make you come in the middle of the hallway, and nobody would notice …”

Luke’s eyes fluttered shut. “Fuck, Michael. I can’t believe you’re doing this to me. You really need to stop talking to me like that, for God’s sake!”

“I bet you like it,” Michael chuckled while stepping back into Luke’s personal space, raising his hands and resting them firmly against the younger boy’s chest.

“Yeah, I do,” Luke had to admit. “But there are better places for dirty talk. Can we just go to class, _please_?”

Michael let out another chuckle. “You want to go to class like this? Really? Because I don’t think anyone could possibly miss your boner right now, so maybe we should -”

“Hemmings! Clifford! What the hell are you doing out here, you’re supposed to be in class! Are you two fighting again? – Of course you are, what else would you do?! To my office, both of you. _Now_.”

“What?” Luke said, opening his eyes and blinking in confusion. “We … we weren’t fighting!”

“Sure you weren’t,” the headmaster snorted, throwing an annoyed look at them. “Seriously, I’ve had enough with you troublemakers.”

“But it’s the truth!” Michael piped up, letting go off Luke’s shirt and taking a few steps back. “We didn’t fight, we … uhm, we just … talked.”

“Of course, that’s exactly what it looked like,” the headmaster said sarcastically. “You two better be in my office in two minutes, or else I’ll punish you every day until your graduation.”

“I can’t believe this,” Luke murmured a couple of minutes later, when they were both sitting on the hard plastic chairs outside the headmaster’s office, waiting for him to call them in. “He looked really angry this time. God, we’re going to be in so much trouble.”

“I know,” Michael sighed, glancing at him apologetically. “I’m sorry, Luke, this is all my fault. Should we tell him what we were doing?”

“He’s not going to believe us. Even if he does, he’ll punish us for not attending class anyway. And he’ll probably ban kissing on school grounds, and everyone will hate us,” Luke grumbled back.

“Hey, stop being so grumpy,” Michael said, shoving him a bit. “I swear, I’ll make it up to you.”

After quite a long moment of silence, Luke’s lips eventually twitched into a small smile. “Is your mouth going to be involved?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then I guess I’ll forgive you.”

“I knew it!” Michael exclaimed triumphantly, grinning at him widely. Luke was about to grin back, but at that very moment he saw someone hurry around the corner, and his eyes widened in shock.

“Luke, thank God. Are you okay? What happened?!?”

“Mum,” Luke choked out, staring at her with an utterly horrified expression on his face. “What are you doing here?”

“Your headmaster called me and asked me to come here, and he just wouldn’t tell me what exactly had happened. I was so worried about you! – Who’s that?” she asked suddenly, looking straight at Michael with raised eyebrows. “Does he have anything to do with it?”

“Uhm.” Luke kept staring at her like a deer caught in the headlight, and next to him Michael began to blush furiously. “I … uh, we … I mean …”

The door to the office swung open, revealing the headmaster’s broad figure. “Mrs Hemmings, I assume?” he said when he saw her standing in front of Luke, her hands resting on his shoulders. “I’m surprised you’re already here. Come in, please. You, too,” he added, glaring at the two boys.

“Well, I was in a shop down the street when you called me. Can someone please explain to me why I’m here?” she replied while following the others through the door.

“Of course. Mrs Hemmings, your son keeps getting into fights, and I won’t tolerate this behaviour any longer.”

“We weren’t fighting!” Luke protested without hesitation. „This is ridiculous!”

“Luke,” his mum said disapprovingly.

“No, but he’s right,” Michael blurted out with reddened cheeks. “This is a misunderstanding. We don’t fight anymore. And it wasn’t Luke’s fault anyway.”

Luke’s mother turned towards him with raised eyebrows. “Hold on. Are you Michael Clifford?”

“Uhm,” Michael mumbled, clearing his throat and blushing even further. Luke couldn’t help but think that it was kind of cute. “Yeah. That, uh, would be me.”

“Oh.” She seemed to consider whether to glare at him or let out a laugh. Eventually, she settled on a shake of her head and a slightly disapproving tone, “I can’t say that I’ve heard particularly good things about you in the past.”

“Uhm,” Michael repeated himself, his face turning rather pale now, “yeah, that’s … understandable, I guess.”

Luke began to feel terrible. This wasn’t the best way to introduce his boyfriend to his mother, it really wasn’t. “Things are different now!” he exclaimed, nearly jumping out of his seat. “I swear, we didn’t fight today, and we won’t -”

“Alright,” the headmaster interrupted him in an utterly annoyed tone, “let’s assume you’re not lying this time. What happened out there?”

Now it was Luke’s time to blush. “Uhm. We were … talking?”

“We’ve become friends,” Michael added, still looking more uncomfortable than Luke had ever seen him before.

“Really?” Luke’s mum said, her lips twitching suspiciously. “So you’ve set your differences aside?”

“Yes,” they both replied in unison.

The headmaster eyed them critically. “This is really hard to believe. Besides, you weren’t in class, like you were supposed to be. What do you think, Mrs Hemmings? What am I supposed to do here? Because to be honest, these two boys are getting on my nerves.”

“How about I talk to Michael’s parents about it so we can sort everything out?” Luke’s mother suggested, while looking at the two boys with a knowing smile playing on her lips that caused Luke’s cheeks to heat up even more. “I’m quite sure you won’t have to deal with any kind of trouble in the future. Isn’t that right, boys?”

“Fine,” the headmaster scowled after watching Luke and Michael nod eagerly. “But if I catch you two one more time in the hallway during class –“

“You won’t,” Michael interrupted him while already jumping to his feet and tugging at Luke’s sleeve. “Can we go to class now?” As soon as the headmaster gave a nod in response, he practically dragged Luke out of the room, a whispered “That was close” falling from his lips.

“Wait,” Luke’s mother called after them, following them without hesitation. “Not so fast, boys. I think you owe me an explanation.”

“The band needs two guitarists,” Luke said quickly, ducking his head to hide the visible blush on his cheeks. “That’s why we’re trying to be friends now.”

“Yeah,” Michael agreed quietly, looking down at his feet.

All of a sudden, Luke felt incredibly guilty and stupid. What the hell was he doing?! “Uhm, actually,” he mumbled while already reaching for Michael’s hand and squeezing it tightly, which caused Michael to look at him in surprise, “we, uh … we found out that we like each other, I mean, _really_ like each other, so … Mum, I need to tell you something.”

“Okay,” she replied, looking at their hands with an only slightly surprised smile on her lips. “Go ahead, tell me.”

“Uhm,” Luke said, clearing his throat. He’d never felt so nervous in his entire life, that was for sure. Then again, his mother probably already knew, if the look on her face was anything to go by. He wouldn’t be holding Michael’s hand if they were just friends.

“Luke,” Michael murmured next to him, gently grazing Luke’s hand with his thumb. “It’s okay.” He was still looking at him, and it was the pure love in his eyes that almost brought Luke to his knees. _Luke. It’s okay._ He was right, so damn right. Everything was going to be okay with Michael by his side.

“He’s right,” his mother said softly, stepping towards them and placing one hand on Luke’s shoulder. Her smile was genuine and reassuring. “It’s okay, Luke. Don’t be afraid. I promise, your father and I will always love you, no matter what.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea how this got so long, but I really like it.
> 
> There will be one more chapter which I'm already working on. Kudos and comments are much appreciated as usual. :)


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry, this chapter took me ages to write. It's the last one, after all, and I hope it was worth the wait.
> 
> Thank you for reading this story. Thank you for leaving comments and kudos, it means a lot to me. This chapter is dedicated to you all.
> 
> (Also, it was the first time I wrote such an explicit sex scene in English. Please keep in mind that it's not my first language, so I hope it doesn't suck. :P)
> 
> Have fun with the last chapter, guys. See you soon, hopefully! I'll keep writing stories, no matter how long it takes me to finish them. ;)
> 
>  
> 
> _\- Leo xx_

**27.**

“Morning, honey,” Luke’s mum said with a wide smile, as soon as Luke had entered the kitchen and slumped down on a chair. It was Friday morning and the four boys couldn’t wait for their parents to finally meet each other the next day, mainly to tell them all about their band and the plans they’ve been making the entire week already.

“Morning,” Luke replied, yawning and stretching a little. He’d spent half the night talking to Michael on the phone – dirty talk included – and was really tempted to just go back to bed and sleep for another eight hours, but he knew that his mother wouldn’t allow it. “Can you make me some coffee, please?” he asked, looking at her with his best puppy face.

“Already did,” she chuckled, reaching for a steaming mug on the counter and placing it in front of her youngest son. “It was very nice to meet Michael again yesterday,” she added with an even wider smile, and Luke couldn’t help but smile back at her.

He’d invited Michael over the day before. Since his mother already knew about them, it seemed stupid to wait until Saturday to officially introduce his boyfriend to his parents. So he’d dragged Michael with him after school, and they’d been making out and playing video games until his parents had come home two hours later and greeted Michael like he was their long-lost son.

“Yeah,” Luke mumbled after sipping his coffee for a minute or so, still smiling happily. “He’s great, isn’t he?”

“He is,” his mother agreed, patting him slightly on the back. “And I’m really glad we won’t have to listen to you complaining about him from now on,” she couldn’t stop herself from teasing him a bit, which caused a light blush to appear on Luke’s cheeks.

“Well,” his father said, walking into the room at that very moment and curving his lips into a little smirk, “I bet he still won’t shut up about that boy, just like Ashton won’t shut up about his own boyfriend. But don’t worry, Luke. Michael really seems like a great guy. So does Calum.”

“Yeah,” Luke nodded, feeling only slightly embarrassed. Mostly, he just felt happy. “We’re both really lucky, I guess.”

“We definitely are,” Ashton grinned, suddenly appearing out of nowhere and taking the seat next to him. “And I can’t wait for tomorrow. Oh, by the way, I’m not coming home today. I’m heading to Calum’s right after work and staying there overnight.”

“Yeah, we don’t need any details on that,” Luke stated dryly, sipping at his coffee again. Ashton just kept grinning and their parents couldn’t hide the small smirk playing on their lips.

“We won’t be home either,” their father told them, quite obviously trying to sound casual but failing spectacularly. “At least not until midnight.”

“Oh, right. Your father’s taking me out for dinner tonight, I almost forgot. Well, Luke, I’m sure you’ll find something to do, right?”

“Why do we have the most embarrassing parents in the world?” Luke groaned several minutes later, when he was sitting in Ashton’s car and staring out of the window.

Ashton let out a little laugh. “Trust me, we’re lucky to have them. They’re so supportive, it’s amazing. And yes, they’re being embarrassing from time to time, but so are other parents. – Besides, don’t you dare complain. At least Dad didn’t tell _you_ how thin the walls in our house are.”

“Did he tell you that?”

“Yeah. Actually, he told me _and Cal_. Trust me, he’s never smirked like that before. But, hey, they like my boyfriend, so it’s all good. They’re supportive, that’s all that matters, and we should be grateful that we don’t have to hide our relationships from our parents.”

“Yeah,” Luke mumbled, and for the next ten minutes or so he remained silent. “Thanks for the ride,” he said, as soon as Ashton had stopped the car in front of the school building, already pushing the door open. “See you tomorrow, yeah?”

“Sure. Now get out, I don’t want to be late for school,” Ashton replied with a little laugh, clapping his shoulder with a fond smile.

Despite the fact that he himself didn’t have much time either, Luke chose to walk really slowly towards the entrance of the building. His head was spinning with thoughts – thoughts about his relationship, thoughts about _hiding_ his relationship – and by the time he entered the hallway and pushed towards his locker, he felt like a complete mess.

Then he caught a glimpse of bright blue hair, and suddenly Luke’s heart threatened to burst out of his chest and run towards the boy that had become so special to Luke during the past couple of weeks. He froze on the spot, staring at Michael for a moment, who was standing at his locker and talking to Calum with sparkling eyes and a big smile plastered to his face.

Suddenly Luke felt like he couldn’t breathe. He was moving again without even realising, walking towards Michael so fast as if he was the only thing in the whole world that still mattered.

He probably was.

“Oh, hey Luke,” Calum greeted, being the first one to spot him.

Luke swallowed hard. He couldn’t believe he was about to do this. “Hi.”

Michael spun around, smiling even wider as he saw Luke standing right in front of him. His big green eyes were still sparkling, and Luke wanted to drown in them for the rest of his life. “Hey there, Hemmings,” Michael chuckled, his smile turning into a cheeky grin while he spoke. “You’re almost late, class starts in less than a minute. You don’t want to get yourself into detention, do you?”

“Shut up, Clifford,” Luke said breathlessly while lunging forward and grabbing Michael’s face. He saw the older boy’s eyes widen in surprise, and then Michael’s back hit the locker behind him and their lips met in a messy kiss that didn’t seem to end anytime soon. 

“Uhm,” Calum said, raising an eyebrow at them. “Yeah, that’s … probably overdue.”

A couple of girls nearby were squealing in unison - “I knew it!” – “They’re really cute together!” – “Yeah, and _hot_!” – and then Calum spotted the headmaster standing only a few metres away and gaping at the scene. The look on his face was absolutely priceless and Calum was really tempted to take a picture and plaster the hallway with it.

Michael’s back was still against the locker and his hands were currently messing up Luke’s hair. Their lips were sliding together in yet another heated kiss that, however, turned into something sweet and slow eventually. Luke could feel Michael smile against his mouth and he could also feel Michael’s heart pounding in his chest, happily and excitedly, just like Luke’s own heart felt right now.

“Love you,” Michael whispered into his ear after they’d broken the kiss eventually.

Luke smiled against his cheek, wrapping his arms around Michael’s body and holding him close. He’d just shown the world that he belonged to Michael, and he couldn’t wait to take his boyfriend home after school and show him, too.

***

“Michael,” Luke said breathlessly while tightening his grip on his boyfriend’s bright blue hair, “you’re so, so _beautiful_ …”

A little moan escaped Michael’s throat in response. “Shut up, I’m not,” he mumbled, actually blushing a little at Luke’s words and immediately trying to hide it.

Luke tugged at his hair again. “Yes, you are. Look at me, Michael. I don’t get it, why can’t you take a fucking compliment?”

“I can,” Michael protested before going back to peppering Luke’s bare thighs with kisses. “Tell me how good my mouth feels on your skin, and you won’t hear me complain.”

The blond boy let out a little sigh. “That’s not what I meant. Whenever I tell you that you’re beautiful, you disagree. Why is it so hard for you to understand that you’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met?”

“Because it’s not true.”

“Yes it is! I don’t get it, Michael. You call me beautiful all the time, so why -”

“Because _you_ are. Now shut up and let me make you feel good,” Michael murmured against his thighs, his big green eyes not quite meeting Luke’s blue ones.

For a split second, Luke was tempted to drop the subject. But he couldn’t. “No, Michael, wait. We really need to talk about this,” he insisted while already sitting up and pulling Michael onto his lap.

“I don’t want to talk right now,” Michael whispered into his ear, bringing his hands up and cupping Luke’s face. “Just wanna make you feel good, Luke. God, I love you so much.”

Hearing the almost desperate tone in his voice caused Luke to stop him right there. “Michael. You know that you don’t have to prove that to me, right? Don’t get me wrong, I love when you touch me, I just …”

“I know that I don’t have to prove it,” Michael interrupted him quietly. He was staring at Luke with wide eyes and his hands were still resting on Luke’s cheeks. “But I want to. I want to show you how much I love you, because … I’m shit at talking, I always seem to find the wrong words, and I always say stuff I shouldn’t say, so …”

“That’s not true,” Luke said firmly. “And it doesn’t explain why you never let me tell you how beautiful you are. I want to say it to you just as much as you say it to me. It’s important to me, Michael.”

Michael looked away for a moment, biting his lips without really noticing. “I guess it’s hard to hear something about yourself that you don’t believe.”

“Then let me show you,” Luke whispered after a few seconds of silence. “Let me show you how beautiful I think you are.” Without waiting for an answer, he let himself fall back into the sheets, pulling Michael with him and starting to kiss him hungrily while doing so. His hands were roaming all over Michael’s naked body, causing the older boy to moan quietly into his mouth and eagerly suck at Luke’s lip ring.

“Luke,” Michael panted after a while, breaking their kiss and rocking his hips into Luke’s body. “Please, I want to suck you off.”

“Not now,” Luke replied, flipping them both over and reaching down to wrap one hand around Michael’s already half-hard cock. “It’s my turn to set the rules, and I want you on your stomach.”

He could feel Michael’s dick twitch at that, and the quiet whimper that fell from Michael’s lips made Luke’s own dick twitch, too. _Fuck_. This was all about making Michael feel loved and beautiful, but to be completely honest, it was really hot, too.

“Fuck, Luke,” Michael moaned a couple minutes later. He was lying on his stomach, just like Luke had told him to, with his face buried in the pillow and his back arched since the moment Luke had put his tongue between his arse cheeks. “Oh my God, Luke …”

“Feels good?” Luke smirked against his hole. He wasn’t sure if Michael had heard him, but the noises the older boy was making were better than anything else Luke had ever had the pleasure to witness before. “You look so good like this, Michael,” he praised him, pulling back a little and pressing a kiss to each cheek. “You _always_ look good. Your body is so beautiful, please believe me.”

He saw Michael lift his head a little. “It’s not easy, but I’ll try.” He sounded so breathless that Luke couldn’t hold back a quiet moan.

“I’m not done yet, you know. I’ll kiss every millimetre of your beautiful body if that means you’re going to believe me.” And just like that, he was leaning down again, hovering over the other boy for a moment before leaving a trail of kisses all over his back and shoulders.

“You’re literally perfect, I don’t deserve you,” Michael whispered, suddenly turning around and pushing his hands into Luke’s hair. When he saw the deep frown on Luke’s face, he added as an afterthought, “Or maybe I do?”

“You definitely do. Look, Michael, I know the struggle people have with their bodies. I don’t really think I’m beautiful either, but whenever you tell me that I am, it makes me feel special. It makes me feel _loved_ , because I know that you mean it. So please, let me say it, too. Because to me, you really are the most beautiful boy in the world.”

His words left Michael speechless. He just kept staring at Luke, pulling him closer and wrapping his arms around him, and eventually he gave a little nod and pressed a quick kiss to Luke’s lips. It felt like the most important promise in the world, and it made Luke’s heart flutter wildly in his chest.

They were kissing for what seemed like an eternity, until they both couldn’t seem to breathe anymore. It was Luke who broke the kiss first, only to slide back between Michael’s legs and wrap one hand around his dick, earning a quiet moan in response. „Wanna show you how much I love you. Wanna make love to you,” the blond boy mumbled, rather to himself than to Michael, but the words were loud enough to be heard in the quiet room.

A small gasp escaped Michael’s throat. “Yeah,” he whispered with wide eyes, tangling his hands back into Luke’s completely tousled hair and pulling a little. “I want that, too. If you’re ready.”

“I am. I just … I’ve never …”

“Me neither,” Michael said reassuringly, pulling him into yet another deep kiss and rolling his hips against Luke’s. “Well, at least not with a real dick. Uhm.” A light blush became visible on his cheeks and Luke almost passed out right there.

“You … uhm. Okay.” Fuck, now he could barely stop himself from thinking about it. “That’s actually fucking hot, Michael.”

“Yeah?” Michael asked, blushing even further but curving his lips into a small smirk at the same time. “Want to watch me do it sometime? It’s almost as big as your cock and I’ve had it in my arse plenty of times, so I’m probably used to -”

“Stop talking,” Luke moaned, already reaching for the lube on his nightstand and pouring some over his fingers. His cock was rock-hard and leaking precome all over their tummies, and Michael talking about fucking himself on a dildo wasn’t helping to hold back his orgasm. At all.

“Why? Are you close already?” Michael teased, so Luke decided to push two fingers inside him and wipe that smug smirk right off his beautiful face. “Fuck,” Michael whined, his head rolling back into the pillow and his eyes squeezing shut tightly. “Hurry up, Luke. Please, _I need you_.”

“We shouldn’t rush this,” Luke tried to reason – mostly with himself, because _fuck_ , he couldn’t wait to be inside Michael for the first time.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Michael panted while pushing back on Luke’s fingers. “I want to do this properly. Love you so much, Luke, you have no idea how – _ohh fuck_ ,” he practically screamed out when Luke’s fingers had found his prostate, and Luke had never been more glad that his family had decided to not spend the evening at home.

“Did I find it?” Luke asked completely unnecessarily, his lips twitching into a satisfied grin.

Michael’s eyes snapped open. “Fuck you,” he replied with a breathless little laugh, a loud moan following his insult as Luke’s fingers hit his prostate over and over again.

“Nah, tonight I’m fucking _you_.”

He could see Michael bite down hard on his lower lip. “Good, then what the hell are you waiting for?”

“We shouldn’t rush this,” Luke reminded him once again. Then he leaned down and took Michael’s erection into his mouth to suck eagerly, causing the blue haired boy to curse loudly.

“Fuck, Luke, I swear I’m not going to last if you keep doing that … Just fuck me already, _please_. – Can I ride you?” he added as an afterthought, which caused Luke’s painfully hard dick to twitch in anticipation.

Releasing Michael’s cock from his mouth, he pulled his fingers out of him and stared at him with wide eyes. “Okay, yeah … tell me what to do?” It came out more like a question than an order, and Luke felt himself blush furiously when he saw the dirty look on Michael’s face.

“You always enjoy that, don’t you? Me telling you what to do,” Michael smirked right at him before flipping them over and letting his hands roam over Luke’s naked body.

Luke snorted at that - and tried to ignore the fact that it came out more like a moan due to Michael’s mouth on his slightly trembling thighs and his left hand wrapped around Luke’s cock. “Shut up, Clifford. You were literally begging me to fuck you ten seconds ago.”

“Yeah, about that, _Hemmings_. Do you have a condom?” Michael murmured against his sensitive skin, sending shivers all over Luke’s body.

“Uhm. Yeah, in the top drawer.” He would _not_ confess that he’d stolen a few condoms from his older brother a couple of days ago. He was pretty sure that Ashton knew, but so far there hadn’t been any complaints about it.

“Ready?” Michael asked a minute later after stroking Luke’s cock a few more times and eventually putting the condom on.

“Yeah,” Luke said softly, pushing himself up onto his elbows and staring into his bright green eyes. “Do you want me to stay like this or …?”

“I … I don’t know. You could sit up, I guess? I’d like that, being close to you and kiss you while we’re doing it. Want you to … hold me.” Michael was blushing again, like he was a little bit embarrassed about it. It was the most adorable thing Luke had ever seen.

“Okay,” the younger boy replied quietly, suddenly not being able to hold back a smile. “I’ll sit against the headboard, alright?” Without waiting for an answer, he did so, and Michael was there within a second and slid into his lap.

“I love you, Luke,” Michael whispered, pressing their foreheads together and stroking Luke’s erection one last time before positioning himself.

Luke’s heart was bumping wildly in his chest. He was about to have sex for the first time in his life, but all he could think of was the answer that rolled off his tongue so easily, like it belonged out there forever, “I love you, too.”

“Love you more,” Michael said while lowering himself down onto him.

“Can we not make this a competition for once – oh _fuck_!” Luke exclaimed as Michael sank all the way down.

“Are you alright?” Michael asked softly, pressing a little kiss to his lips and then looking at him questioningly, and Luke didn’t know whether to laugh or stare at him incredulously.

“Are you seriously asking me if I’m alright? Shouldn’t I be the one asking this question? I mean, my dick is literally up your arse, you –“

Michael let out a breathless little laugh. “Oh shut up, Hemmings. I’m fine, I promise. Just give me a second to get used to it, yeah? Has been a few days since I’ve had … well. – Don’t look at me like that, I was hard and you weren’t there. I promise I was thinking of you the whole time.”

“A few days?” Luke echoed, gaping at him. “And you didn’t, like, want to call me and ask me to come over, because …?”

Michael looked like he couldn’t decide whether to facepalm or smile at him fondly. “You’re unbelievable, Luke Hemmings. I promise I’ll let you shove that fake dick up my arse next time, yeah? Now can we _please_ focus on your very real dick that’s inside me right now?”

“Yeah,” Luke said, unable to stop himself from letting out a hysterical fit of laughter. “Yeah, of course. I’m sorry, I’m such an idiot. And you feel so good around me – oh God,” he moaned when Michael began to move without further warning.

Michael moaned, too, lifting himself up and down and grabbing Luke’s face to kiss the hell out of him. “So much better,” he panted eventually, slamming down with trembling thighs. “Fuck, Luke, you’re gonna come already?”

“Trying not to,” was all Luke managed to choke out while he was fucking up into Michael as best he could. “Feels amazing, oh fuck, Michael … I love you, I love you …”

“I love you,” Michael echoed, sliding his tongue into Luke’s mouth for what seemed like the hundredths time today. They were kissing desperately, while their bodies kept rocking into each other, and eventually Luke reached for Michael’s cock that was trapped between them and started pumping it furiously.

“God, Luke,” Michael moaned against his lips, pulling back only for a couple of seconds. “You look so fucking amazing, like … like a sweaty angel … oh _shit_ ,” he screamed out suddenly, tightening his grip on Luke’s hair and gasping for air.

Luke let a breathless little laugh slip past his lips. “I found it again? You’re gonna come, Michael?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m close,” Michael panted, slotting their lips back together. “I just, I … fuck, this is fucking exhausting, I didn’t realise … Luke, I need to come, _please_ …”

“Come on, love,” Luke whispered right into his ear while fisting Michael’s cock and bucking up his hips particularly hard. “I’m close, too. Come with me, yeah?”

“Luke,” Michael cried out one last time, reaching his orgasm and sagging against him, and Luke followed right after.

“Oh my God,” what the first thing Luke said after what felt like hours of silence. He felt so tired all of a sudden, and he supposed Michael had to feel even more exhausted, so he wrapped his arms tightly around Michael’s body and held him close. Just like Michael had told him to before.

“That was fucking amazing,” Michael mumbled while nuzzling his face into the crook of Luke’s neck. “Can’t believe we came so fast though. God, I’m fucking exhausted, please let’s never move again.”

“We have to, my dick’s still in your arse,” Luke reminded him with a breathless giggle.

“Don’t care.”

“Yeah, but I do. Come on, let me get that condom off, and then we can lie down and sleep for three days.”

“We’ll be missed tomorrow,” Michael chuckled quietly. “Our parents will be coming upstairs to find us here, and they’ll be freaked out.”

“Nah, they’ll be cool about it. Mum will embarrass me in front of everyone by asking if we used protection, but that’ll be it.” Luke let out another giggle before pressing a sweet kiss to Michael’s tousled blue hair, and the older boy finally gave in and lifted himself up, letting Luke’s cock slide out of his hole and climbing off his lap carefully.

“I love you,” Luke mumbled a couple of minutes later, when they were lying in absolute darkness, their legs tangled together and Luke’s arms wrapped around Michael’s body. “I love you so much, Michael. To the moon and back.”

Michael just snuggled closer, yawning and then pressing his face back into the crook of Luke’s neck to breathe in his scent. He was half asleep already, Luke could tell, but a few tiredly whispered words left his mouth anyway, “Shut up and let me sleep, you sweaty angel.”

It sounded more like “I love you, too, and I will stay with you forever”, and Luke’s wildly beating heart was definitely okay with that.

***

“So, guys,” Calum said the next day, when they were all sitting in the backyard of the Hemmings house. “We need a name for our band, and then Michael’s going to put up a Facebook page.”

“No, we should make a YouTube channel first,” Luke protested without hesitation. “Nobody’s going to like our Facebook page if there are no videos.”

“True, but we still need a name first,” Calum argued back, looking at Ashton for support.

“ _Four idiots from Sydney_ ,” Ashton said dryly, causing Michael to laugh in approval. “That’s the most accurate it can get.”

“Hey,” Calum whined, sounding only a little bit offended, “did you just call your boyfriend an idiot?”

Ashton shrugged, not being able to hold back a grin. “Yeah. Let’s face it, we’re all idiots.”

“Yeah, but nobody will ever work with us if we call ourselves that,” Luke giggled, snuggling closer towards Michael and smiling at him widely.

Michael smiled back, leaning towards him and pressing a soft kiss to his lips before pulling back a little and wrapping his arm around Luke’s shoulder. “We’ll never agree on a name, guys. You realise that, right?”

“How about we call you _the two guys who fucked last night_ ,” Calum stated completely unfazed, causing both of them to blush furiously and stare at him like deer caught in the headlight.

“What?” Luke squeaked eventually, his face about to explode.

Calum rolled his eyes. “Oh come on, we’re not blind. It’s practically written all over your stupid faces, nobody could possibly miss that. So, who tops?”

“Shut your mouth if you don’t want us to ask you the same question,” Michael shot back without hesitation, pulling Luke closer protectively.

“I have an idea,” Ashton said, his lips twitching suspiciously. “We’ll call the band _Calum, Ashton, Michael and that guy who stole his brother’s condoms_.”

“Can you please _shut up_?” Luke whined in a terribly high-pitched voice, while Calum was almost screaming with laughter. “I don’t want our parents to listen to this kind of conversation!”

“Fine,” Ashton smirked right at him. “Promise to buy your own condoms from now on?”

Michael let out a groan. “Oh fuck off. Yes, he promises not to steal your stuff anymore. Now shut up. And you,” he turned towards Calum and tried his hardest not to laugh as well, “have five seconds to stop. – Hey, that’s actually not bad. _Five seconds of idiotism_ , how about that?”

“As a band name? That’s awful,” Ashton decided, and then he grabbed Calum’s arm and dragged him towards their parents. Probably to help them set up the barbecue they were having today.

“It’s not that bad,” Luke said, kissing Michael’s plump red lips with a fond little smile. “You have great ideas, Michael.”

Michael let his lips break into a wide grin. “Yeah, I know, I’m pretty awesome.”

Luke elbowed him slightly, rolling his eyes at him but not being able to stop that terribly fond smile that was spreading even further now. “Shut up, Clifford.”

“You love me, Hemmings.”

“Yeah,” Luke said, still smiling. “I do.”

“To the moon and back, right?” Michael didn’t even wait for an answer; he leaned forward and let his lips slide against Luke’s for a proper kiss this time, and Luke’s heart almost seemed to burst out of his chest.

“You remembered what I said to you last night.”

“Of course I did. I’ll always remember it, those words mean the world to me. Just like you.” Now Michael was smiling, too, and suddenly Luke didn’t want to stop kissing him ever again.

But before he could voice his thoughts, Michael rose to his feet, smiling towards their families and putting his sunglasses on. He was the perfect combination of sweet and badass, Luke realised, and that thought made him smile even wider.

“Let’s go over and help them before they complain,” Michael suggested, pulling Luke into his side – and suddenly he swirled around and threw the younger boy over his shoulder with a loud laugh.

“Michael!” Luke shrieked, gasping in surprise. “Let me down!”

“Nope,” Michael refused to do so, still laughing.

“Michael Clifford! I can’t believe you’re doing this, you’re absolutely crazy!” As soon as the words were out, Luke couldn’t stop himself from letting out a laugh himself. And while Michael was staggering towards their families, carrying him through the backyard like a trophy, Luke started smiling like an idiot, the words falling from his lips like they belonged out there, for everyone to hear, “But, you know … that’s what I like about you.”

  


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_~ The End ~_

  



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